ANNOUNCEMENTS
The industrial sector has process heat requirements which can be met using concentrated solar thermal technology. This study tries to assess the potential for integrating solar thermal technology and consequent CO2 emission reduction for pasteurisation process in the dairy industry. Most of the studies and projects conducted in the dairy industry considered the use of solar thermal technology for providing auxiliary power or for low temperature process heat applications such as hot water requirements. They did not examine the potential for high temperature process heat application through steam generation and evaluate the commercial viability of such technologies.
The study focuses on estimating the solar energy potential and thermal energy demand at different dairy plant locations in Rajasthan. The performance characteristics such as heat gain and collector efficiency of the parabolic dish collector have been studied using simulation software. The average heat gain potential of one parabolic dish collector at select dairy plant location is around 600 GJ/annum with an average collector efficiency above 60%. The corresponding furnace oil saved, and CO2 emission mitigated annually is around 17000 litres and 60 tonnes respectively. The sensitivity analysis shows that parameters such as project life, capital cost and price of furnace oil have an impact on the financial merits with furnace oil price being the most prominent as it defines the monetary savings.
Keywords: Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST), Parabolic Dish Collector (PDC), Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI), Dairy Industry, Heat gain
