Evaluación y mejora de la eficiencia energética en la producción de queso fresco en la planta de Cungapite (Cañar)

Abstract

El Canarejo, located in the Honorato Vásquez parish, Cañar Province, is a small plant dedicated to the processing of milk for the production of cheese, yogurt and milk delicacy. The cooperative enterprise among peasants in the area has proven to be an efficient method to improve their quality of life. However, the lack of experience of farmers in the management of industrial plants, even on a small scale, is a factor that has a negative effect on the sustainability of the plant, especially from an economic point of view, due to the impossibility of Manage to measure and control properly the inputs of production, raw materials, water and energy. The present work makes an energy diagnosis of the plant, emphasizing the energy losses that occur in the cooling, electrical and thermal systems, and then propose actions that allow to improve the energetic indicators of the plant. For this, a characterization of the magnitudes that define the behavior of these systems is carried out. The study showed that the plant is inefficient in its processes, both productive and energetic when working below installed capacity and with a decreasing projection. For this reason, we propose the adoption of records of daily production, consumption of diesel and consumption of electricity and, additionally, the design of a cogeneration system that would allow to generate in the same plant both the electric energy As the thermal energy required in the process.