IIT-Kharagpur lends cutting edge to the cuppa
Your morning cuppa is set to get a fresh zing, thanks to a new technology for tea production developed after four years' research by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. What's more, tea produced through this new low-cost technology will not only bring smiles to the faces of tea drinkers, but growers as well, especially small players who will now have a more level playing field with the big players in the industry.
A team of scientists led by Prof Bijoy Chandra Ghosh of IIT-Kgp's agricultural and food engineering department has designed and developed a mini CTC (crush, tear and curl) manufacturing process. In August this year, the prototype was successfully tested and validated at the North Bengal Regional R&D Centre of Tea Research Association in the presence of Tea Board experts, scientists and big and small tea producers.
"With this series of non-polluting technologies, we have cut down on space requirement, energy consumption and overall production cost in each step of a conventional tea processing—withering, maceration, rolling, fermentation and drying. We have built a circular withering trough that can save 60% space and consumes less energy than the conventional one. Ditto for our new single-cut horizontal macerator prototype. Overall, we will be able to reduce cost, space and energy using the new machines," said Ghosh who, along with colleagues B Maiti, E V Thomas and others had embarked on the project in 2008. The Tea Board of India had approached IIT-Kgp with Rs 3.66 crore fundingto develop low-cost next-generation machines that would reduce cost of tea production drastically to save the industry.
"In the new model," revealed Dilip KumarKushwaha, project scientist, IIT-Kgp, "the fermentation process has been standardized to control parameters like temperature and relative humidity for producing high quality tea. We are also working on the drying process to get high quality tea with small capacity machine suitable for small tea growers."
The new micro CTC machine can process 200 kg of green leaves per hour. According to Kushwaha, with the help of new machines, small growers can now produce quality CTC tea by controlling the size and shape of the tea grains. "About Rs 5 crore is needed to set up a conventional tea processing unit that requires to be handled by 20 to 25 people. But this same unit will cost Rs 25 lakh and can handle 1000-3000 kg of fresh tea leaves a day. The new model can be set up on 5-6 kottah plots and require just three to four handlers," said Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, president of Cista, a small tea growers' body.
A team of scientists led by Prof Bijoy Chandra Ghosh of IIT-Kgp's agricultural and food engineering department has designed and developed a mini CTC (crush, tear and curl) manufacturing process. In August this year, the prototype was successfully tested and validated at the North Bengal Regional R&D Centre of Tea Research Association in the presence of Tea Board experts, scientists and big and small tea producers.
"With this series of non-polluting technologies, we have cut down on space requirement, energy consumption and overall production cost in each step of a conventional tea processing—withering, maceration, rolling, fermentation and drying. We have built a circular withering trough that can save 60% space and consumes less energy than the conventional one. Ditto for our new single-cut horizontal macerator prototype. Overall, we will be able to reduce cost, space and energy using the new machines," said Ghosh who, along with colleagues B Maiti, E V Thomas and others had embarked on the project in 2008. The Tea Board of India had approached IIT-Kgp with Rs 3.66 crore fundingto develop low-cost next-generation machines that would reduce cost of tea production drastically to save the industry.
"In the new model," revealed Dilip KumarKushwaha, project scientist, IIT-Kgp, "the fermentation process has been standardized to control parameters like temperature and relative humidity for producing high quality tea. We are also working on the drying process to get high quality tea with small capacity machine suitable for small tea growers."
The new micro CTC machine can process 200 kg of green leaves per hour. According to Kushwaha, with the help of new machines, small growers can now produce quality CTC tea by controlling the size and shape of the tea grains. "About Rs 5 crore is needed to set up a conventional tea processing unit that requires to be handled by 20 to 25 people. But this same unit will cost Rs 25 lakh and can handle 1000-3000 kg of fresh tea leaves a day. The new model can be set up on 5-6 kottah plots and require just three to four handlers," said Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, president of Cista, a small tea growers' body.
Comments