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Food industry is one of the most impactful sectors of Indian economy
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Tuesday, 01 December, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Monika Singh
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Food Industry is on the most impactful sector of our countries economy. It is a vital link between the agricultural and industrial sector of India which are two most important aspects of the Indian economy. India is currently the second largest food producer in the world after china.
Indian Food Industry
As per India Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian food and grocery market is the world’s sixth largest, with retail contributing 70 per cent of the sales. Food Processing Industry is one of the largest industries in India with almost 32 per cent of the total food market. It ranks 5th in terms of consumption, production, export and expected growth. The current value of Indian Food Market is at US$ 1.3 billion which is growing rapidly at an annual compound growth rate (CAGR)of 20 per cent. India's organic food market is expected to increase by three times by 2020.Indian Food Industry is a prospective area for the use of Solar Power systems because of the extremely low temperature processes which can be easily carried out through solar heating. There is a large temperature demand of 150°C in the food industry. Taking into account its big share of the 11 industrial heat demand at low temperatures, the food industry has a great potential for the use of Solar Thermal Energy.
In the food processing industry solar energy use is mainly limited to drying operations. Solar vegetable fruit dryers whom operate below 55 degree centigrade are best suitable for this purpose. Over the years, solar technologies have been developed for various other processes as well. Solar concentrators have the capacity to provide excellent boiling, steaming, blanching and roasting capabilities while Solar Air Dryers/Heaters are the most effective when it comes to removing moisture. Much efforts are required to integrate the knowledge known for the food processing industry that have created opportunities for using alternate renewable energies for post harvest food processing.
Solar energy devices/systems have a huge potential for process heat and other thermal applications. These applications are mainly dependent on fuel oil which have huge GHG emissions causing a potential threat to the environment. India uses almost 100 million tones of oil every year out of which 40 per cent is consumed by the industrial sector alone. Around 40-50 per cent consumption is in the form of thermal temperature range below 250 °C which is around 15 million tons of fuel per annum. India has witnessed fastest rise in the oil demand from 15 million it has raised up to 16.9 million in just 14 months. Applications like refrigeration, drying and canning in the food industry are a few among various other processes. Solar energy is a big advantage for this industry as cleanliness and production are the main points to be considered.
Solar power and India
Indian government has launched India’s Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), keeping in mind that It’s fastest developing industry, within a time frame of 20 years they enlists the action plan which will helps in reducing the transition of refrigerant, cooling demand, more energy efficiency and better technology options across different sectors. India has aimed for the target of 20GW power capacity by 2022, which has been achieved 4 years before aimed time period. Currently, if we look at the future market it can be seen going on peek with the increase in cooling demand in India along with the sector growth and as an essential contribution in the economic growth. Cooling demands majorly depends on refrigeration based cooling across different sectors like buildings, refrigeration, cold-chain, transport, According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) causes 10 per cent of the global CO2 emissions. India has been reported the lowest cooling consumption country across the world which also reflects in its low per capita levels of energy consumption for space cooling which is at 69 kWh, as compared to the world average of 272 kWh.
The two main technological solutions which solar powered cooling solutions come with include are how to generate energy enough for an expanding global populations and how to feed the constantly expanding world population. Solar dryers, refrigerators, collectors are being used for various steps in food processing and value addition.
Solar power is a green source of supplying energy which helps at its best to lower the carbon footprints. Which also helps in a sustainable future? Sun, the major source of energy provides additional energy that one can ever use it and nobody can control the sunlight. Using solar energy is the greatest innovation a human can have because human use the majority of energy in electricity and solar energy doesn’t produce any air pollution or greenhouse gases which can have worse effect on the environment. One of the major benefit that every human is looking after is cost effective prices, which solar energy offers them at not so great prices. In current era where most of the people are looking forward to adopt eco friendly items to preserve nature. Consumers, mostly commercial and industrial sectors are looking forward for the eco friendly environment. Solar food processing is now one of the emerging technologies that provide good quality of food with no additional costs.
(The author is director at Exalta, UP)
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