SMALL SCALE ORTHODOX TEA DRYING WITH GASIFIER Bal Mukunda Kunwar (061/BME/607)

this process that the tea leaf changes from green, through light brown to a deep brown. To stop the oxidization process, the tea is passed through hot air dryers. [2] On an average 100 kg of fresh leaf produces 22.5 kg of dried tea containing residual 3% moisture. The difference of 77.5 kg between the figures represents the moisture evaporated during the process. Of the 77.5 kg, about 20-25 kg is evaporated during withering and around 20-50 kg is evaporated during drying. A leaf particle has to undergo a moisture change from around 70% to 3% during drying. The drying takes place by evaporation of moisture from the surface of tea leaves and migration of moisture from interior of a particle to the surface known as diffusion process. [2] Drying Process The drying process is influenced by the temperature of inlet and exhaust air, volume of air, quantity of leaf fed, period of drying. So, these factors should be well accounted before designing the tea drying system. Drying of tea involves both physical and chemical aspects. Temperature, at which tea is dried, has to be selected judiciously. Too high temperature at the initial stage may cause case hardening and blistering. A faster rate of evaporation may impart the teas an undesirable harshness. On the other hand, too low drying temperature slows down the rate of drying and high temperature oxidation is allowed to proceed for a longer period resulting in a dull and soft product. For conventional drier, an inlet temperature between 90-110C has been found to be satisfactory. Exhaust temperature is equally important as it indicates how much heat has been extracted from the incoming hot air. For conventional drier an exhaust temperature of 50-60C is advocated as at this range the oxidation of the leaf is brought nearly to a stop. Volume of air for drying depends on two factors moisture to be removed and temperature selected. If the volume of air is below the normal requirement, the temperature will have to be increased to produce the same amount of heat. Controlling air volume can control the temperature and the capacity of a dryer to a certain extent. Fan or blower is use to control the volume of air. The spread of the leaf should be to a reasonable depth. Overloading the dryer requires higher drying temperature and longer period of drying. In general, finer material should be spread thinner. The thickness of spread of leaf will also depend on the degree of wither as well as inlet temperature index. Time required for drying tea varies with degree of wither, temperature, thickness of spread and volume of air. It

Background Tea is one of the most widely-consumed beverages in the world. In the scenario of Nepal; Tea is one of the major cash crops. The area under tea cultivation in Nepal (2004/2005) has more than 15,901 hectares of land. There are more than 85 tea estates providing tea leaves to 38 tea processing factories. Annually more than 12.6 million kg of tea is produced in these factories. The tea produced here are mainly of two types - CTC and orthodox tea. CTC (Cut, Trim & Curl) tea, which is known as black tea, is mostly consumed within the country. Orthodox tea, which is known as hill tea, is export oriented. As per the statistics of the government, currently Nepal is producing 10.94 million kg of the CTC tea and 1.66 million kg of orthodox tea. 90% of the orthodox tea is exported to India and overseas countries, whereas remaining is used for direct consumption and partially for blending purposes in the black tea to impart it with the good flavor. The major hill plantation districts for orthodox tea are Ilam, Tehrathum, Dhankuta and Panchthar and are expanding to other hilly districts too. [1] Tea Production Process The tea leaves must go through process of Withering, Rolling, Oxidation and Drying for making loose tea. Here, two leaves and bud is plucked and collected to wither. The objective of withering is to reduce the moisture in the tea leaf by up to 70%.The tea leaves are laid out on a wire mesh in troughs. Air is then passed through these troughs so that the moisture is removed in a uniform way. This process takes between 12 to17 hours, until the leaves are limp, pliable and will roll well. The tea leaves are then placed into a rolling machine, which rotates horizontally on a rolling table. This action creates the twisted wiry looking tea leaves. During the rolling process the leaves are also broken open, which starts the third process - oxidation. Oxidation is an extremely important part of tea production. The process of oxidation ultimately creates the different types of tea and contributes to tea's flavor, color and strength. This stage is critical & finalizes the flavor of the tea. If left too long, the flavor will be spoilt. To oxidize tea, the leaves are put into troughs or laid out on tables. Oxidization occurs when enzymes within the leaves react with the air and takes 30 minutes to two hours at about 26oC for completion. It is during

is apparent that the two main objectives of drying viz., final moisture content (3%) and arrest of oxidation can be achieved even in shorter residence time by increasing the drying rate. [2, 4] Problem associated with Tea drying in Nepal Tea production is good in Nepal. Still, the farmers are facing a lot of problems. In case of orthodox tea the situation is much worse. The overall production of tea leaves in the production area is greater in comparison to the capacities of existing tea factories. There are 15 large scale factories with fixed capacity. This limits the production of tea leaves and surplus production will not fetch proper price. The fresh leaves must be delivered to factory within 12 hrs. In hilly region the transportation is not good. Farmers have to walk longer distance. The longer the delivery time there is more deduction in price of tea leaves. So, farmers far away from the industries have to produce dry tea on their own. Tea requires special conditions for the preparation and processing, which are not easily available to local farmers at affordable costs. Tea processing has a lot of complication. Equal importance should be given to each process. Biomass is the main source of energy for the farmers which are not efficiently used. Besides, traditional method of drying using coal, wood, etc in open drying system deteriorates the quality and flavor of the tea. Small contamination with the smoke or undesired flavor destroy the quality of the tea. On the other hand, in hilly region the climatic condition is unsuitable for solar drying. Because of this constraints tea farmers who are living far from the tea industries are not able to produce quality tea, hence they do not get proper price for their products. So, there is a need of good tea drying system for small scale with proper heat source. This system must be able to produce quality tea with preserved flavor. This system must prevent contamination of tea with smoke and other undesired flavor. The production must be high and continuous. Tea drying system A tea dryer consists of the dryer, furnace, heat exchanger and a fan. The fan is used to introduce the clean hot air at the bottom of the dryer. In furnace the fuel is burnt. In heat exchanger the heat of the furnace gases is transferred to clean air. In the drying chamber the clean hot air is passed through the leaf and evaporates the moisture therein. Furnace and heat exchanger form one unit known as the stove or air heater. The gasifier is the source of heat energy act as a furnace. The gas is burned in the heat exchanger. The heat generated by the flue gases heats the fresh air passing through the heat exchanger. There is no direct contact between incoming air and burned gas. The heated air is then passed to cabinet by forced

circulation. This heated air then dries the tea leaves. [2, 4] Gasifier The gasifier is the source of heat energy in which gasification of biomass occurs. Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials into producer gas by means of thermo chemical reaction of the raw material at high temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen. Producer gas is the mixture of Carbon monoxide, Hydrogen and Methane which are combustible, together with Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen and Water-vapor, which are non combustible. Gasification is a very efficient method for extracting energy from different types of organic materials. The advantage of gasification is that using the producer gas is more efficient than direct combustion of the original fuel. So, more of the energy contained in the fuel is extracted. Also, it produces less smoke and pollution is also less. In a gasifier, the carbonaceous material undergoes several different processes at different zone viz; Drying zone, where the moisture is driven out from raw material, Pyrolysis zone, where the carbonaceous particle heats up. & solid biomass decomposed to tar, oils, acids, lighter gases and char in absence of O2, , Reduction zone, where the gasification process occurs as the char reacts with carbon dioxide, steam and hydrogen to produce carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane, and Combustion zone, where the pyrolysis products are oxidized into carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water vapor which provides heat for the subsequent gasification reactions. On the basis of air movement, gasifier can be divided to; Updraft gasifier, Down-draft gasifier and Cross-draft gasifier. [3, 4] Conclusion From all study and observation between various methods for tea drying, using gasifier as heat source not only helps for uniform flame for heat exchanger, continuous fuel of multiple nature can be used and drying of tea can be carried out effectively. For higher efficiency, appropriate exchanger should be with having minimal losses. References 1. 2. 3. 4. FNCCI,2006 http://www.twiningsusa.com/TeaExperience/pre pare-manufacture.php http://www.wikipedia.com/gasification.html M.S.BASNYAT, S. O., 1992, A study on gasifier; A case study on Illam, M.Sc. Final year project report, Department of Mechanical Engineering.