DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF

SMART JAGGERY AKA GURR

PRODUCTION REACTOR

ABDUL HANAN ZAFAR

AWAIS ABID

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of BS Mechanical Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences

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 Nilore, Islamabad
(January, 2018)

Declaration
I declare that all material in this thesis which is not our own work has been identified
and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a
degree by this or any other university.

Signature:___________________
Author’s Name: Abdul Hanan Zafar

Signature:___________________
Author’s Name: Awais Abid

It is certified that the work in this thesis is carried out and completed under my
supervision.

Supervisor:

Signature: __________________
Dr Muhammad Tayyeb Javed
DChE, PIEAS

Co-Supervisor:

Signature: __________________
Sir Muhammad Abid Ilyas
DME, PIEAS

Submitted through,

Signature: __________________

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Dr. Rizwan Alim Mufti
Head, Department of Mechanical Department,
Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences Nilore, Islamabad

DEDICATION

Dedicated with love to our parents and girlfriends

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We humbly thank Almighty Allah, The Merciful, The Beneficent, whose bountiful
blessings made our project easier for us. We offer our humblest thanks to the Holy
Prophet (Peace be upon Him) who is a model of guidance and knowledge for
humanity.
It gives us immense pleasure to acknowledge our beloved, kind and valuable teacher,
and supervisor, Dr Muhammad Tayyeb Javed, Department of Chemical Engineering
(DChE), Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), Nilore,
Islamabad, whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled us to develop an
understanding of the subject. It was his practical experience and patience that we are
still working in the right direction leading to learning and explorations related to our
final year project.
We would also like to pay our sincere gratitude to my co-supervisor Sir Muhammad
Abid Ilyas, for his valuable suggestions and encouragement.

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 ABSTRACT

Jaggery is a sweetener that's becoming popular as a "healthy" replacement for sugar. It

is an unrefined sugar product made in Asia and Africa. It's sometimes referred to as a
"non-centrifugal sugar," because it's not spun during processing to remove the
nutritious molasses. It is basically cooled concentrated sugar cane syrup. While
making it, crushed sugar cane juice is heated in multiple stages and impurities are
skimmed off by adding some additives to this boiling juice. Later on the juice is
cooled and shaped manually using scraper tool. This technique of jiggery production
is carried from generation to generation with a very little or no improvement at all.
Majority of the world jiggery is produced in the subcontinent and is also considered a
part of our culture. The technique that is being used so far is not only very inefficient
but also sub-standard which needs to be improved using modern day technologies.
That’s where the idea of smart jaggery came from. This document presents a brief
introduction to the apparatuses that we were to develop, their design, analysis and
manufacturing pro-cesses and the progress we have made so far. Since Smart Jaggery
Production Reactor’s analysis and manufacturing was decided to be of concern of the
next semester so a brief theory of the subject is being presented along with the
designing of a simple prototype of the Reactor. For the next semester our goal is to
complete the remaining apparatus setups, make them presentable in a more aesthetic
form, assemble them and make them ready for the testing purposes.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................IV

ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................V

TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................VI

LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................VIII

LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................IX

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................1

1.1 Jaggery...........................................................................................................1
1.2 Manufacturing Process...................................................................................1
1.3 Aims and Outline of Thesis............................................................................2

CHAPTER 2 JAGGERY PRODUCTION PROCESS.........................................4

2.1 Old Jaggery Technique...................................................................................4

2.1.1 Background................................................................................................4
2.2 Recipe.............................................................................................................4
2.2.1 Juice Extraction.........................................................................................4
2.2.2 Initial Heating............................................................................................6
2.2.3 Slag Removal.............................................................................................6
2.2.4 Boiling........................................................................................................7
2.2.5 Cooling.......................................................................................................8
2.3 Problems Encountered.................................................................................10
2.3.1 Hardcore Labour.....................................................................................10
2.3.2 Sub-Standard Technique..........................................................................10
2.3.3 Inefficient Design Methods and Apparatus..............................................11

CHAPTER 3 SMART JAGGERY PRODUCTION...........................................13

3.1 Innovation....................................................................................................13
3.1.1 Improved crusher design..........................................................................13
3.1.2 Initial filtration........................................................................................13
3.1.3 Initial heating tank...................................................................................14
3.1.4 Slag removing..........................................................................................14
3.1.5 Boiling......................................................................................................15

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 3.1.6 Cooling and Shaping...............................................................................16
3.2 Comparison..................................................................................................17

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 LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 2.1: GROUP PHOTO WITH FARMER, LABOUR AND AGRICULTURE EXPERTS.
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FIGURE 2.2: JUICE EXTRACTOR.
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FIGURE 2.3: SLAG REMOVAL
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FIGURE 2.4 :JUICE BOILING PROCESS
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FIGURE 2.4: COOLING THROUGH STIRING
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FIGURE 2.5 : PAISIS MAKING
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FIGURE 3.1 : SIEVE WITH 250 UM SIZE
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FIGURE 3.2 : HEATING TANK
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FIGURE 3.3 : SLAG REMOVING TANK
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FIGURE 3.4 : SIEVE WHICH WILL REMOVE SLAG
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FIGURE 3.5 : BOILING POT
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FIGURE 3.6 : AGITATOR
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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Productivity Comparision 17

Table 2 :Comparison of Heating Process 18

Table 3 :Time Efficiency 18

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Jaggery

Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in Asia, Africa and

some countries in the America. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often
date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from
golden brown to dark brown in colour. It contains up to 50% sucrose, up to 20%
invert sugars, and up to 20% moisture, with the remainder made up of other insoluble
matter, such as wood ash, proteins, and bagasse fibres. Jaggery is mixed with other
ingredients, such as peanuts, condensed milk, coconut, and white sugar, to produce
several locally marketed and consumed delicacies. Unrefined, it is known by various
names, including Panela, in other parts of the world. In Pakistan only Sugarcane is
used for making Jaggery. It is healthy alternative to sugar. Due to its complex
chemical composition it releases energy slowly and gradually thus preventing
chances of diabetes. It is rich in nutrients which are absent in sugar hence becoming
more beneficial for health i.e. high iron concentration prevents anaemia, asthma,
cough and cold. It also cleanses lungs, stomach, respiratory tract. Jaggery is also rich
in potassium which is responsible for weight loss thus countering todays’ biggest
problem of obesity mainly caused by sugar.

1.2 Manufacturing Process

Jaggery is made using traditional methods of pressing and distilling cane juice. This
is a 3-step process.

Extraction: The sugar cane is pressed using a two or three roller machine to
extract the sweet juice. Machine is run using petrol engine or ox in some backward
areas. Both horizontal and vertical machines are used for this process.

Clarification: The extracted sugar cane juice is collected in a big vessel. The
juice is allowed to stand in large containers so that any sediment settles to the bottom.
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 Introduction

It is then strained to produce a clear liquid. A certain quantity of the juice is

transferred to a smaller vessel for heating on a furnace. The vessel is heated for about
one hour. Dried wood pulp from the crushed sugar cane is used as fuel for the
furnace. While boiling the juice, some additives is added to it so that all the wood
particles or impurities are collected on top of the juice in a froth during boiling which
is skimmed off. Finally the juice is thickened and reduced to nearly one-fifth of the
original volume. This hot liquid is golden in colour. It is stirred continuously and
lifted with a spatula to observe whether it forms a thread or drips drop wise while
falling. If it forms many threads, it has completely thickened. Usually juice is placed
in a very large, flat-bottomed pan and boiled.

Cooling: In the last stage it is poured into a shallow flat bottomed tank to cool
and solidify. The tank is large enough to allow only a thin coat of this hot liquid to
form at its bottom, so as to increase the surface area for quick evaporation and
cooling. After cooling down the Jaggery becomes a soft solid which is then pressed
into the desired shape for selling at the market. Usually it is shaped like a half sphere.

1.3 Aims and Outline of Thesis

We observed the old technique to be very inefficient, time consuming and

substandard. Labour was at very high risk to safety and hard-core. Due to
unavailability of this kind of labour, farmers were facing great difficulty. Therefore
we decided to put our mechanical engineering knowledge into use and solve their
problems.

Aim of this project is to define the recipe of jaggery making with the help of some
physical parameters which can be measured and standardised. Until now usually an
old, experienced man takes decision just by seeing physical nature of mixture. We are
also committed to redesign the overall process to not only reduce time of whole
process but also design it according to food standards and increase production. It
involves innovation of old apparatus and updating some of the processes using
standard apparatus easily available in market now a days.

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 Introduction

It starts from increasing efficiency of juice extractor machine then reducing the time
of boiling process and automation of the whole process. Last but not the least
automatic cooling and packing of jaggery in standardized shape with respect to mass.

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Chapter 2 Jaggery Production Process

2.1 Old Jaggery Technique

2.1.1 Background

Current jaggery manufacture technique is very old. Since 1950s we have not seen
any significant change in recipe or improvement in the process. Recipe is transferred
from generation to generation by heart and is nowhere written in any technical form
for study.

Before sugar was invented it was the only source of natural sweetener and part of
culture , where whole family used to gather in sugar cane harvesting season and
would make jaggery while enjoying. Then came the era of sugar and sugar industry
flourished and was controlled by sugar mafia. With some strong politicians entering
in the sugar industry created misery for jaggery producers. Even at once it was
banned official and farmer who tried to make it was even put behind bars.

2.2 Recipe

2.2.1 Juice Extraction

Juice extraction is the first step of this whole process and is the most vital one as this
step determines how much cane juice will be produced and hence the quantity of end
product depends directly on the percentage juice extraction.

The producers usually 3-miller Juice extractor is used. The machine is powered by a
15HP gasoline engine.

A pre-weighed sample of sugarcane was crushed and juice was obtained. 175Kg of
sugarcane was crushed to get 95Kg of cane juice i.e. 54.5% extraction by weight.

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 Jaggery Production Process

This juice had a volume of 88liters since its density was calculated to be 1.08Kg/dm 3.
This was the exact volume being used for producing a single batch. The temperature
of this juice was 38o.

Figure Jaggery Production Process.1: Group photo with farmer, labour and agriculture experts.

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 Jaggery Production Process

Figure Jaggery Production Process.2: Juice extractor.

2.2.2 Initial Heating

The freshly extracted juice was left standing until all of the bagasse particles settle
down. Later on the juice was filtered using a fine piece of cloth as filter and poured
directly into a container for initial heating. This container was placed right before the
exhaust pipe of the fire Killen. The temperature of this pan was measured to be 80 o.
Juice is heated there for about 35 minutes. There the maximum temperature of juice
is about 75o after 35 minutes of heating

2.2.3 Slag Removal

In the next stage the juice is poured into the adjacent pan which is slightly closer to
the fire and hence on a higher temperature. After pouring the juice, impurities start
accumulating on the top in the form of slag within first 10min of the heating. After
skimming the slag, a very minute quantity of GaoZaban, 0.064Kg is added. Within 5
minutes more slags starts appearing on the surface which is skimmed off and about
0.013Kg of Caustic is added to the syrup. After cooking for 20 straight minutes at 94 o
the juice is shifted into the next pan. Juice spends about 35 minutes in this pan

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 Jaggery Production Process

Figure Jaggery Production Process.3: Slag removal.

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 Jaggery Production Process

2.2.4 Boiling

In this last stage of heating, the juice is boiled on the main flame and is heated on the
highest temperature. After shifting 0.013Kg of Caustic is added to it. After 5min
bubbles starts appearing on the surface and the level starts rising and reaches a
maximum level in 2min. At that stage the temperature of juice is about 101 oC. After
7-8min the bubbles start settling down until the juice becomes clear once again at
about 104oC. After waiting for 2min about 10gm of Mustard Oil is added to it.
Mustard oil helps the entrapped air in the molecules in escaping. The juice transforms
into a thick paste with the passage of time. The temperature of paste keeps rising for
next 7-8min then at 115oC the paste is considered fully boiled and is hence
transferred into the coolingblocks.

Figure 2.4 :Juice Boiling process

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 Jaggery Production Process

2.2.5 Cooling

After the paste is formed, it is transferred into a wooden container where 0.013Kg of
Caustic is added to it. The paste is then left for some time to cool down by itself at
room temperature. After some time it is being mixed by using a scraper tool in order
to assist cooling. By that time temperature of the paste gets down to about 86oC. It is
mixed for next 10min and then again left for some more time to cool down naturally.
It keeps solidifying every passing moment until it turns into a semi-solid after 20min.
At this point paste cools down to 72 oC. This cooled paste is turned into a typically
common shape called PAISI using a scraper tool. The final product of this process,
PAISIs weighs about 16.7Kg which means that 78.3Kg of water was evaporated
during this boiling process.

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 Jaggery Production Process

Figure Jaggery Production Process.4: Cooling through stiring.

Figure 2.5 : PAISIs making.

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 Jaggery Production Process

2.3 Problems Encountered

2.3.1 Hardcore Labour

Since the Killen burns for days and days during the production of Jaggery, the
workers or labour working around there have to be tough enough to face all that and
work efficiently in that environment. When we asked some of the employers in our
recent visit that what do they think is the major cause of downfall of Jaggery, they
told us that the main reason was unavailability of labour. He himself was an eminent
landlord and had dozens of acres of standing crop of sugarcane, but he was also
unable to turn it into Jaggery because he had only 4 workers available for doing that
job.
If a bigger farmer has issues like this, then the farmers with very little land can also
not keep up with this dying trend of jiggery making. The solution that we thought of
is to automat this whole process and replace an expert cook with smart AI camera
based phase recognition technology. In this way without having an expert on spot, the
reactor or any irrelevant person present there can himself figure out if the product is
done or not.

2.3.2 Sub-Standard Technique

For years and years Jaggery has been cooked and prepared in the open muddy fields
where all kind of animals can be easily seen passing by and this raises several health
insecurities in many consumers’ mind. That is in fact a major reason why in a modern
household we see no Jaggery as part of proper diet like it used to be. Even Food
Authorities are taking strict action against sub-standard food manufacturing plants
but they’re also skipping this industry. Due to no check over food quality people are
really health conscious when it comes to consumption of Jaggery. This issue is one of
the main reasons why demand of jiggery has die out.
This issue can be simply be addressed by implementing some strict food quality
criteria but in that case no one would be able to produce Jaggery. What we propose as
a solution to this issue is, that we provide them with a production plant which is
automated and needs least of direct human contact. The workers will be provided
with a proper covered workspace with complete hygiene so in this way the food

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 Jaggery Production Process

quality related issues can be minimized to a least level. Initially we’re working on a
portable van sized reactor to carry it all.

2.3.3 Inefficient Design Methods and Apparatus

2.3.3.1 Juice Extraction

During juice extraction, when we ran a weighed sample of cane through it and
crushed it. The juice extracted was then weighed and %age juice extraction was
calculated as 54.5% by weight. This is very low percentage for commercial purposes.
While analyzing the design of the extractor we found out that the design of that 3
miller cane extractor was old and inefficient. That was one of the main reasons why
the product was not as efficient as it could be.

As mechanical engineers we thought of a quick solution for it which was to redesign

the whole crusher and provide them with the one that gives them a maximum %age
of juice extraction. This would directly affect the production of that unit.

2.3.3.2 Filtration Process

They were using a fine knitted piece of cloth as a filter while filtering the juice which
is no doubt a really inefficient way to do that.

We on the other hand thought of a better and smarter way to do that. We thought of
using a very fine sieve system as filter for the juice. In this way a more efficient and
proper way of filtering the juice will be introduced to this industry.

2.3.3.3 Cooking Process

All of the cooking was taking place at direct fire fueled by the dried bagasse of
sugarcane. When we observed the whole Killen and took a few temperature readings
at different stages we found out that the maximum temperature that boiling juice gets
to reach is 115oC while the exhaust temperature of the gases at chimney was 188 oC.
This huge difference in temperature told us all about the inefficiency of their cooking
technique.

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 Jaggery Production Process

Instead of wasting this much of heat as exhaust we propose to use steam jacketed
pans and install a boiler system for that purpose. In this way energy can be stored for
long time and can be delivered to the juice in an efficient way.

2.3.3.4 Slag Removing Process

This is one of the most significant processes of this whole technique. They usually
remove slag with a big skimmer spoon and they have to do it repeatedly for complete
removal of slag because every time some part of slag is left on the surface. This takes
time and effort.

In order to save it we planned on designing a new slag removal technique which will
be way more efficient and take less effort

2.3.3.5 Cooling Process

They have to wait for about 30min before they could shape the cooled Jaggery paste
into desired shapes using their hands only. Even consumers have issues regarding it
shape and hygiene in this regard.

This whole effort can be reduced and time can be save by employing a cooling
technique using which it is only a matter of minutes before the paste cool down and
then shaped into some standardized shapes, suitable for a uniform intake in daily
routine.

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Chapter 3 Smart Jaggery Production

3.1 Innovation

After thoroughly examining the current process we came up with new process design
which includes innovative and improved apparatus.

3.1.1 Improved crusher design

As currently the juice extraction is very low due to poor roller extractor design. We
have decided to invent a new design to gain maximum efficiency thus leading to
higher production. We are willing to take juice extraction to 65-70 % which is part of
our next semester.

3.1.2 Initial filtration

We are standardising the initial filtration technique by designing new two stage
filtration using sieves. First juice will be passed through a sieve with big pores and
then for fine filtration through sieve with minute pores of size equal to 250 μm.

Figure 3.1 : Sieve with 250 um size

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 Smart Jaggery Production

3.1.3 Initial heating tank

We have designed a tank in which juice will be collected and then heated initial with
a heating coil.

Figure 3.2 : Heating tank

3.1.4 Slag removing

We have innovated slag removing technique which automatically remove slag using
a sieve. The square pan is heated using steam as shown in figure below.

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 Smart Jaggery Production

Figure 3.3 : Slag removing tank

Figure 3.4 : sieve which will remove slag

3.1.5 Boiling

For boiling purpose we are using steam jacket pot for uniform and controlled heating.
Stirring will be done automatically with agitor.

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 Smart Jaggery Production

Figure 3.5 : Boiling pot

Figure 3.6 : Agitator

3.1.6 Cooling and Shaping

Designing this machine is task of next semester.

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 Smart Jaggery Production

3.2 Comparison

Here’s a brief comparison of what jiggery manufacturing technique will be like in

after innovating and equipping it with the modern apparatus. A brief comparison of
current jiggery manufacturing technique and the technique we’re using in smart
jiggery production reactor is as follows:

Table 3: Productivity Comparision

The comparison of heat exhaust is as follows:

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 Smart Jaggery Production

Table 4 :Comparison of Heating Process

Comparison of Time Consumption in each case is as follows:

Table 3 :Time Efficiency

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 Smart Jaggery Production

These entire demo graphs shows that Smart Jaggery Production Reactor is way more
efficient in every aspect when compared to the current Jaggery production technique
being used.

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