Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Tata Centre For Technology and Design

Project Progress Format

Basic Details
Research Project Feasibility study of Jaggery making and related products
Name
Domain Food and Agriculture
Faculty Supervisor Prof. Sanjay Mahajani (Chemical), Narendra Shah (CTARA), Vinish
Kathuria (SOM)
Research Team- Pankaj Verma (Ph.D., Student),
members Sneha Iyer (Ph.D., Student),
Rohan Ohri (M.Tech, Student)
Vishambhar Patil (Senior Project Technical Assistant),
Rohit Kumbhar (Project Staff)
Pravin Patil (Project Staff)

Project start date

Duration of project
A brief description Currently, jaggery is produced in India in cottage industry. In the
of project beginning of 20th century, entire sugarcane was utilized for
jaggery making in rural areas till the introduction of modern
sugar industry. Thereafter, it did not see much growth due to
rapid growth of sugar mills. The major factors responsible for
jaggery sector downfall have been poor efficiency of juice
extraction, open pan furnace inefficiency, jaggery moulding and
packaging, quality control and hygiene issues, lack of technical
skill, meager financial and policy support etc. There is
tremendous scope for technological interventions in many of
these areas. The existing jaggery process is a batch process
wherein, cane is crushed and juice is transferred to pan. The wet
bagasse generated after crushing is sun-dried and the dry
bagasse is manually fed to the furnace and burnt. The process is
highly labor intensive. A survey in Kolhapur District of
Maharashtra indicates that the jaggery quality was not uniform
both in terms of hardness and colour. Also, the labor is scarce
and unreliable, thereby, severely affecting the overall jaggery
business. Reviving jaggery units is the key to provide livelihood
for farmers who cannot sell their cane to sugar factories for
various reasons. Furthermore, jaggery is the healthier substitute
to sugar. While the core technology that uses continuous
process is already developed by the PIs group in the past, in the
translation phase of the project, the unit is being upgraded to
make the process more robust and less dependent on labor. The
overall objective is to establish cost-effective, hygienic and
automated production of jaggery and other value-added
products, to overcome the existing problems faced by this
industry.
Present SRL of SRL 6-7

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 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Tata Centre For Technology and Design
Project

Project Progress Details (Do not disclose IP content here)

Details of work  CIP- cleaning in place system design and installation.
completed  SOP and its training – Made SOP from cane handling to
product handling and trained the workers.
 Process Modification- Juice pre-treatment,
 Commissioning of multiple effect evaporator
 Powder jaggery making prototype – Designed and
fabricated a small double screw conveyor and run it for
Jaggery making.
 Signed MOU with the food based company (Mellows) to do
the commercial run this plant and get some economic data
 Installation of steam boiler to improve the heating system
control of last pan.
Details of the  Prototype testing for cubes.
ongoing work  Process Modification- Juice clarifier design.
 Automation- Installation of data recording system.
 Trouble-shooting of molding machine for the accurate
weighing of jaggery

Planned Milestones
3 to 6 months  Process design for clarification and its implementation on
large scale
 Scale up the prototype of powder jaggery.
 Study and possible solution of colour development in
jaggery, realized in last heating pan
 Make arrangement to increase the plant hygiene (civil work)
 Developing protocols for the entire plant operation for its
hygiene maintenance, according to Indian Govt. norms
SRL aimed at end of 7-8
6th month
6 to 12 months  Commercial run for the plant with food company Mellows
(MoU signed) and check the techno-economic feasibility of
the plant.
 Generate the data on process parameters.
 Work on new product development (powder jaggery, small
cubes).
 Making arrangement to make jaggery cubes in existing
molding machine
SRL aimed at end of 9
12th month

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 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Tata Centre For Technology and Design
Support needed from TCTD
Field related / NGO connection Yes, Market Survey
Industry connection Yes
Lab-to-market strategy Yes
Any other feedback or suggestions Market Study- Need to look for market to sell
different types of jaggery.

Support received from TCTD within the
previous year
Field related / NGO
connection
Admin Support
Industry connection
Lab-to-market strategy
Any other support received
Any other feedback or
suggestions
Name of Faculty (EC Member of TCTD),
Project Manager, Staff, TCTD Lab Staff,
others
Yes
No
No
Fabrication Deepak Kale
Need more fabricators
The bill processing is vey slow, it hinders the
work flow and delays in the desire delivery
timeline.

If you have Tata Fellow, please provide any feedback for his/her contribution to the project

Please provides images of experimental setup / proof-of-concept / prototype (Do not

disclose IP content)

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Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Tata Centre For Technology and Design

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