Exergy and energy analyses of a sugarcane juice production and clarification unit

The energy and exergy analyses of raw juice production and juice clarification units are carried out using the operational data from M/s Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd, Deoband (Dist: Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh), India. All the stages are considered as a steady state open thermodynamic system and the analysis is done by employing the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The results are analysed and discussed in this paper. The causes and location of energy loss and irreversibilities are identified. The exergy and energy efficiencies of raw juice production stage are found as 59.27% and 83.05% and those of juice clarification stage are 71.23% and 80.65%, respectively. Based on the analysis, it is recommended that the energy and exergy efficiencies of the process can be improved, if the irreversibilities generated during the process are minimised.