REPORT

PROJECT ON: PROCESS OPTIMIZATION IN AN AGROFOOD INDUSTRY

METHODOLOGY USED:

1. METHOD STUDY
2. PROCESS ANALYSIS
3. BRAIN STORMING
4. QUALITY MANAGEMENT
5. ENGINEERING ANALYSIS

BY
SOORAJ VARRIER-130310115025
B.E.( INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING) - SEM7

2016-17
 GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
LUKHDHIRJI ENGINEERING COLLEGE-MORBI

PROJECT TYPE: IDP

NAME OF INDUSTRY: OSWAL AGRIMPEX
PROJECT REPORT ON IMPROVING PROCESS BY PROCESS OPTIMIZATION
FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF B.E. DEGREE IN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

BY
SOORAJ VARRIER -130310115025
B.E.SEM7 INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

GUIDED BY
PROF.H.D.SANTOKI

H.O.D
PROF.N.N.GARVALIA
2016-17
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Sooraj Varrier of B.E.SEM-7 INDUSTRIAL

ENGINEERING branch has successfully submitted his PROJECT 1 on process
optimization during his academic period of 2016-17 as per his curriculum in
Gujarat Technological University

Signature of faculty guide

Date:
 INDEX

sr no. Topic Page no.

1 Abstract 4

2 Acknowledgment 5

3 Introduction 6
1. Company profile
2. Existing manufacturing process
4 Product description 10
1. Castor seeds
2. Characteristics of castor oil
3. Castor oil manufacturing techniques
4. Castor oil usage
5 Method study 12
1. Collection of data
2. Recording of data

6 Problem identification : 16
1. Problem statement
2. Source of the problem
3. Factor affected
7 Possible /Proposed solution: 19
1. Methodology used
2. Proposed solution
3. Conclusion

8 Bibliography 24
 Abstract

Castor oil widely used in pharmaceutical industry and in automobile industry. It’s
basically cheap than other oil in the market. The Gujarat state in India holds 85%
percent of the total manufacturing of castor oil in India. The maximum exports are
done to Middle East and European countries. OSWAL AGRIMPEX is one of the
manufacturers and exporters of castor oil and its derivatives, uses both
conventional and chemical process for manufacturing. It has been observed that the
material travels a lot in pipelines and in conveyors. In this report following
suggestions have been done for improving the process by combining operations
with material handling devices.

Key words: - expeller, decantizer, heptane, flight conveyor, elevator, operation

process charts.
 Acknowledgement

It gives me immense pleasure to acknowledge and thank Mr. Rohit Dhelriya of

OSWAL AGRIMPEX , Gandhidham for allowing me to do the project at his firm
and also to my internal guide Prof. H.D.Santoki for imparting knowledge about the
project and solving doubt related to project and thanking Prof S.B.Padaliya for
helping us with project related work .
 Introduction:
Company profile:

Oswal Agrimpex, KASEZ, Gandhidham kutch is one of the many castor oil
manufacturing plant in the area. It is situated at one of the trade hub of India,
Kandla; located at a place which facilitates tax free trade and commerce. It is
basically a continuous process industry, it is also an agro food industry .Main
products are castor oil and its derivatives. The plant has largest production capacity
in terms of per day production . the plant has the production capacity of 150
MT/day. And has a storage facility of about 1500 mt. The firm is a partnership firm
under Champala group . the company mostly exports castor oil and sell less in
India. It works when the order is received and mostly dependent on demand of the
market .

The firm has highly experienced operators in the field of castor oil manufacturing
and its refining. The whole plant is divided into three segments

1. The conventional type of crude castor oil manufacturing using mechanical

expeller
2. The solvent plant type of castor oil extraction using solvent as heptane
3. It has state of art oil refining machinery

The company mainly export the oil to Hongkong, European countries and sells the
crude castor oil the automobile component manufacturers as the oil is used as
vehicle oil.
Existing manufacturing techniques

The entire plant operates more by the use of an fluidized based combustion boiler
(highly efficient boiler) having a capacity to produce steam with pressure
13.25kg/cm2 having temperature of 120deg C, the plant is highly energy efficient
unless any maintenance activity interrupt .

The whole plant as discussed above has three segments.

First segment: Crude castor oil manufacturing which involve the following steps in
the process

Unloading Seed’s steam cooked in kettle at Crushed in Expeller

castor seeds 120deg C

Degumming process Heated in a vessel at 120deg C Stored in tank

Final storage

Block diagram of crude oil extrusion plant

As explained in the block diagram the castor seeds are first cleaned using steam
and heated at 120degC such that moisture is removed but some moisture is retained
as per the production requirements at this firm 2% of moisture must be there for
the acceptance of the product. The oil once cooked get extracted in an expeller and
then allowed to cool. The density of such oil is high so its heated in an induction
vessel to again heat it to remove the moisture and allow the oil to expand in the
vessel, the process is known as degumming; the oil then transported to decantizer
where decanting operation of oil take place and the oil is separated and stored.
Here the residue obtain contain 10% of the oil which is again extracted in the
solvent plant using heptane. The crude oil from mechanical extraction is then
refined, in the refinery. The total plant has the capacity of 150 MT/Day.
 Product description
Castor seeds:
Castor bean is a herbacious annual which can reach to nearly 15 feet tall when
growing in open spaces in warm climates. Large leaves are alternate, palmately
lobed with 5-11 toothed lobes. Leaves are glossy and often red or bronze tinted
when young. Flowers appear in clusters at the end of the main stem in late summer.
The fruit consists of an oblong spiny pod which contains three seeds on average.
Seeds are oval and light brown, mottled or streaked with light and dark brown and
resemble a pinto bean. The plant itself is fast growing, but the seeds require a long
frost-free season in order to mature.

Characteristics of castor oil:

Castor oil is well known as a source of ricinoleic acid, a monounsaturated, 18-
carbon fatty acid. Among fatty acids, ricinoleic acid is unusual in that it has a
hydroxyl functional group on the 12th carbon. This functional group causes
ricinoleic acid (and castor oil) to be more polar than most fats. The chemical
reactivity of the alcohol group also allows chemical derivatization that is not
possible with most other seed oils. Because of its ricinoleic acid content, castor oil
is a valuable chemical in feedstock’s, commanding a higher price than other seed
oils. As an example, in July 2007, Indian castor oil sold for about US$0.90 per
kilogram (US$0.41 per pound) where as U.S. soybean, sunflower and canola oils
sold for about US$0.30 per kilogram

Castor oil manufacturing:

Castor oil is basically manufactured by mechanical and chemical way. Where

mechanical or conventional, the seeds are cooked and expelled through expeller;
the efficiency of such technique is 80% of oil extraction. Castor oil can be
manufactured in chemical way by using solvent such as heptanes it has efficiency
95% of the oil. The seeds contain about 50 percent oil by weight. To extract the oil
they must be crushed and pressed with hydraulic or continuous screw pressing at
high or low temperature. High temperature hydraulic pressing yields 80 percent of
available oil. Further solvent extraction can release much of the remaining oil.

The first stage of oil extraction is pre-pressing, normally using a high pressure
continuous screw press – called the expeller. Extracted oil is filtered, and the
material removed from the oil is fed back into the stream along with fresh material.
Material finally discharged from the press, called castor cake, contains 8-10% oil.
It is crushed into a coarse meal, and subjected to solvent extraction with heptane to
extract further oil

Castor oil usage:

The following are the usage of castor oil:

1. Precursor to industrial chemicals

2. Lubrication
3. Early aviation and aero-modeling
4. Biodiesel
5. Coatings
6. Food and preservative
 METHOD STUDY:

DEFINITION:

Method study according to British Standards Institution (BS3138)

“Method study is the systematic recording and critical examination of existing

and proposed ways of doing work, as a means of developing and applying easier
and more effective method and reducing cost.”

Basic procedure of method study

Method study is an organized approach and its investigation rest on the following
six steps

1. Select the work to be analyzed

2. Record all the fact relating to the existing method
3. Examine the recorded facts critically but impartially
4. Develop the most economical method commensurate with plant
requirements
5. Install the new method as standard practice
6. Maintain the new method
Selection of job:
The plant selected for method study is raw castor oil extrusion. Here the job is
selected between the expeller and the decantizer, which involves a large amount of
flow of material which is shown in the block diagram above here the oil, is
transported by using flight conveyor to vessel, it is heated at 120deg C. then
degumming take place in the vessel and then oil is transported to decantizer.

Economic consideration:

Operations involving repetitive work is between expeller and decantizer the

following section have unorderly movements of material
Recording of data:

The data related about the processing and its machinery are given below

Incoming quantity 288750kg/day

of castor seeds

Capacity of kettle 1ton/10 min

Expeller 1 ton/15 min

No. of expeller 5

Capacity of 1ton/15min
decantizer
Storage capacity 1500 MT
 CRUDE OIL MANUFACTURING PROCESS CHART
METHOD: EXISTING PROCESS: RAW CASTOR OIL EXTRACTION

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

CHART STARTS: UNLOADING CASTOR SEEDS

CHART ENDS: STORAGE OF CASTOR OIL

CHARTED BY: SOORAJ VARRIER

CHARTED AT: OSWAL AGRIMPEX DATE: 26-8-2016

...................................................................................................................................
UNLOADING CASTOR SEEDS

STORED IN GODOWN

(28.93)

(4.455 ) elevator to kettle

1 Heated in kettle at120deg

5

1 Crushing of seeds and expelling oil and formation

5
of cake

(5) Via flight conveyor

Stored in tank

(1.2)

Piped via pipes to vessel

 Oil incoming to vessel

F 1 Fatty acid re removed in vessel heated at 120degC

Oil from vessel is transported to degumming devices

1
5

Storage of raw castor oil at tanks via pipes

SUMMARY TABLE:

Existing proposed

Charting symbols Operation- 4 3

Transportation 4 4
Operation
o Storage 3 2

Transportation
Total distance: 39.58m

Inspection Total 55min

Storage

Delay
D
Flow process chart
 Problem identification

Problem statement
It is identified during the method study that there are excess circulation of oil from
expeller to the vessel which increase power utilization, takes extra time and
distance

Source of problem:
The entire plant operates more by the use of an F.B.C boiler having capacity to
form steam with pressure 13.25kg/cm2 of 120 deg C thus making the plant energy
efficient. The plant has the capacity to produce 150MT/day of crude castor oil
according to chemical process of crude castor oil manufacturing following stages
are necessary to produce castor conventionally. The seeds are cooked in kettle
using 120deg C, so that 80% of oil extruded, then the oil is heated in a vessel
where steam is circulated through copper coils so that the oil can get proper area
when heated so that fat is removed

There are three vessels having the volume cylindrical in shape of radius 1.5m and
height about 4.5m

So the volume it can handle is the volume of cylinder=

pi/4r2l=pi/4*1.5^2*4.5m^3=7.952m^3

1000litres=1m^3

7952.15litres =7.952 m^3

There are 3 vessels in total so the amount of oil required by the plant to fulfill its
capacity is 5666.6 tons/hr

Here the floor space occupied by three vessels are considering as the vessel

Area occupied by these three vessels =3*2*pi*1.5*5; h=5, r=1.5

=141.3716sqm

Lot of circulation is done due to the operation take place in the vessel.
the operation from expeller to the vessel is having one temporary storage and adds
too much time and distance in the total process as the entire plant is powered by
boiler it just add cost using feed pumps everywhere between the process

Factors affected
By changing the following operation the quality is affected because the operation
exists are designed for a particular density of the oil if the oil is not given enough
area to expand then the density of the oil is affected. Quality characteristic here
can be consider as density of oil
 Problem solution:

Methodology used:
-Brain storming

By discussing with my friend and colleagues following ideas are generated:

1. To form an underground tank such that the oil from the expeller directly go
to the tank and tank is designed like the vessel having stirring device and
coils same as vessel as here in the following study
2. To wind up the flight conveyor with copper coil such that oil can get heated
when passing through it and can be stored in an underground tank such that
floor spaced can be levied.
3. To form a heating section within the flight conveyor and changing the time
of processing of the expeller such that oil does not needed to be stored and
can be directly be processed to the degumming devices

Reviews from brainstorming:

1 if we develop an underground tank and form a mechanism which allows directly
the oil to flow from expeller to the tank then whole of the flow pattern is altered
and maintenance work will get tough and installation cost will be very much as
compared to other.

2 there may be a chance that the oil doesn’t get heated properly because spiral coils
have less contact area than that was in the cylinder in the existing model thus will
not remove fatty acids

3 the oil should be allowed to cool and then heated in the vessel for degumming
process

Thus compared to 1&2, 3 may be a feasible solution

Methodology used:
Engineering analysis

Considering one expeller having capacity of processing 1ton oil/15min

So, the flight conveyor should have the capacity to handle 4 ton of oil /hr and it
should be continuously used according to brainstorming case (3). We have to apply
a zone in the flight conveyor such that the oil initially been cooled and then again
is heated at 120deg C for 10minutes and then pumped to the decantizer

So the basic question is how big shall be the storage space such that 1ton oil can be
accumulated and then how to schedule the time between successive operation

The volume required by the storage space for cubical section, because flight
conveyor has a volume of cube

=l*b*h= 1ton

Assuming l=1m, b=1m, h=1m then volume will be 1m^3=1000litre

So a system can be formed underground and the flight conveyor can be used to
convey the oil to the storage attached to it thus can avoid the area occupied by the
vessel i.e. 141.3716sqm. Now how to maintain the quality characteristic of the oil
in the proposed method because by not using the volume of the vessel as same as
that of a cylinder the oil density characteristics will be affected

So we must maintain the same area thus the volume be 70.5*h that oil’s properties
remain same which would be more of the field of Chemical technology and
basically Industrial engineering is not a subject to that

Thus removing excess operation and combining them for good

Design of system:
The design vary according to the calculation

Thus making this possible we can save a cubic space of 141.4sqm and thus avoid
excess travel of oil. the design allow continuous stirring of the oil in the vessel
with the help of the rotor which is powered by the steam circulated in the system
the vessel having equal area of that of the vessels in existing method
Conclusion:
Process optimization and its development has changed the flow line without
altering the process

Time saved in proposed method 10 min

Quality characteristic retained
Fuel efficiency increased
Conclusion table
References :

Work study by L.C. Jhamb

Quality management by O.Pandey

Product development and value engineering by A.K.CHITALE

Value engineering by S.S.Iyer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_oil

http://www.castoroil.in/extraction/extraction.html

http://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCE2012/WCE2012_pp1586-1589.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandla

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_economic_zone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-trade_zone

http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/castor/castor.htm