3.3. Analysis of energy consumptions
Energy consumption in the tapioca starch processing can be
divided into electricity used for machine motors and fuel oil
(heating oil) used for a drying oven. As shown in Table 2, the
studied plants consumed twice the amount of energy from fuel oil
compared to electricity. Note that two of the eight studied plants
used rice husk and steam instead of fuel oil when this study was
conducted. Measurements of the machines’ electricity usage show
that a chopper and grinder, starch separator, and DHC (for starch
dewatering) account for 44% of the total electricity consumption in
the tapioca starch processing. Unsurprisingly, the energy consumptions
have smaller variations than does the water consumption.
This is mainly because most plants are concerned about
energy consumption efficiency, which accounts for a significant
proportion of their production cost (Fig. 2).