Agro Processing Plant Design Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: 432 kg

The trap is the unit conversion: milligrams per litre times cubic metres gives grams, so a factor of 1000 is easily lost.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 22.66 million

Working capital is additional to the fixed investment, not part of it - a distinction that matters, since it is recovered at the end of the project rather than written off.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 36.1 per cent

Travel distance is a fair proxy for handling cost, damage and time in a food plant, which is why layout studies work in metres per tonne.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 5.5 t/h

Replacing the 4.5 t/h stage leaves stages of 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and 5.5 t/h, so the new bottleneck is the 5.5 t/h stage. This is the essence of debottlenecking: relieving one constraint simply reveals the next, and the gain here is 1.0 t/h rather than the 2.0 the new machine might suggest.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Statement I is incorrect but Statement II is correct

Statement II explains why statement I is wrong. Because the crop arrives in a short window and cannot be held back, the plant must be sized on the peak arrival rate, not on the annual tonnage spread over 365 days. Sizing on the average would leave most of the crop unprocessed and wasted.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Both Statement I and Statement II are correct

Statement II is the consequence of statement I. The slowest stage sets the throughput, and every other stage is then limited to that rate - so capacity installed elsewhere earns nothing until the bottleneck is relieved. This is why line balancing is a capital question, not merely an operating one.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Statement I is incorrect but Statement II is correct

The two drawings are quite different. A flow sheet is a logical document: what operations occur, in what order, with what streams between them. A layout is a physical one: where each machine stands, how services reach it, and how material and people move. One can be drawn without knowing the other.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Both Statement I and Statement II are correct

Statement II is the reason for statement I. However good the cleaning regime, crossing paths will eventually transfer contamination - on wheels, on clothing, in aerosols - so the separation must be built into the layout rather than managed by procedure. That is why unidirectional flow is a design requirement in food plants.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Statement I is incorrect but Statement II is correct

Statement II gives the correct relation and refutes statement I. Because cost goes as \(Q^{0.6}\), doubling the capacity multiplies the cost by \(2^{0.6} = 1.52\) - about half again, not twice. The economy of scale arises because a vessel’s cost follows its surface while its capacity follows its volume.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Both Statement I and Statement II are correct

Statement II explains statement I. A seasonal plant may have to buy a whole year’s raw material within a three-month season, and then hold the product as stock until it is sold through the year. Both tie up money, which is why working capital in such a plant can rival the fixed investment.