TECHNOLOGICAL GAP ANALYSIS FOR RICE MILL CLUSTER AT LIKHISARAI, BIHAR

Description

Executive Summary

The rice mill cluster of Lakhisarai has 79 units out of which 77 units produce raw rice. Only two units produce parboiled rice. Capacity of these said units are 0.5 metric ton / hour. The cluster engages directly about 113 persons and about 105 small scale entrepreneurs work in their unit as well.

The technological gap analysis study is focused in three major areas namely Energy, Environment and Productivity. In our study we have quantified that the power factoris about 0.56. The poor power factor is also reflected through Total Harmonic Distortion and DQO transformation. It is recommended that the motor is to be replaced at the earliest. The replacement cost will be 80 – 120 thousand (INR). The invested cost is recoverable within one year for estimated improved power factor of 0.9. The specific energy consumption for modern rice mill with much better quality is 29.3 kWh/ton. The specific energy consumption of raw rice milling is obtained as 65 to 70 kWh/ton. For reducing the specific energy consumption of rice mill machines, proper design intervention is suggested.

All the mills of the cluster are integral part of their house. Due to the lack of Cyclone Separator, fugitive particle dust emission is found. Also it poses severe health risk towards the family of the unit owners, workers and neighbours due to the lack of proper safety equipment’s. The existing value addition process lacks in proper polishing, sorting and grading. As a result the unit owners operate on very marginal profit.

The dust emission is controllable to large extent though the use of cyclone separator. However, the use of proper storage tank might tackle the problem to large extent. By the use of proper polisher (silky), sorter, whiter and grader the quality of milled rice will improve drastically. For that the capital investment in machinery is in the order of 80-100 Lakhs. It is customary to mention that the reputed manufacturers like SATAKE/ MILTECH/ BUHLER do not manufacture mill machinery of 0.5 ton/hr capacity and the projected investment cost in machinery is for the capacity of 4 ton/hr. With the proper installation of polisher, whitener, sorter & grader, Per Kg value addition will increase substantially. As a result the selling price of one kg rice from 19 to 25-27 (INR). Detailed business plan model of the proper value addition has been proposed for prospective entrepreneur.

As a part of long term technological intervention we have proposed few design interventions in addition to exposure visit. It is evident that many units don’t have the capacity to invest in the order of 1-6 Crore INR for modern rice mills. At the same time reputed rice mill machinery manufacturers do not produce the mill machinery of 0.5 ton/ hr. IIT Patna projecting itself as the R&D hub of rice mill machinery manufacturing cluster, Raxaul. We have proposed seven major design projects related to the improvement in rice mill machinery. The design intervention includes dynamic analysis, design sheet generation, prototype manufacturing, testing and technology transfer. We will be performing many new product design steps through proper engineering processes. However, there is a prudent scope of improvement in the yield of rice by 3%. It is customary to mention that 1% increase in yield will save approximately 200 Crore INR for the total produced paddy in Bihar.

Salient Recommendations Include

• Design intervention leading to energy efficiency and higher yield with minimum breakage.
• New design for 0.5-2 Ton/hr Integrating Parboiling unit with rice mill machine.
• Capacity building through training in Advanced Fabrication and Assembly, Energy Audit, Entrepreneurship Development Programme and Exposure Visit.