Performance Analysis of High-Efficiency Motor and Variable Speed Drive in Black Tea Processing Machinery

The present old standard efficiency motors (SEM) in black tea processing machinery consume large amount of electricity, thus increases the cost of production. Technologically improved high-efficiency motors (HEM) or HEM coupled with variable speed drive (VSD) could be useful to achieve high-energy efficiency. Therefore, a study was conducted with the focus to determine the feasibility of introducing HEM and VSD in withering and rolling machinery of black tea manufacturing. A withering trough and two different capacity rotorvane rollers were selected for the study, and the energy consumption of different treatments was measured, and specific energy consumption, annual bill savings, simple payback period, and potential carbon dioxide emission reduction were calculated. The results showed that introducing HEM or HEM coupled with VSD saves the energy compared to SEM (p