Agro Processing Plant Design Questions and Answers

Answer: A

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

The diversity factor has nothing to do with where the consumers are; it exists because they do not all draw their maximum at the same instant. Sizing on the sum of individual peaks would buy capacity that is never called for at once.

Answer: B

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

Statement II is exactly why statement I is wrong. Payback ignores everything after the payback point - so a project returning nothing thereafter scores as well as one returning for twenty years - and it ignores the time value of money. It is a useful screen for risk, but the decision needs a discounted measure such as net present value.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 2, 1, 4, 3

The order is: establish the capacity from raw material availability; prepare the flow sheet and material balance, which fix every stream; select and size the equipment from those quantities; and only then lay it out on the site. Each step supplies what the next needs - you cannot size a machine before you know the flow through it.

Answer: D

Equipment cost is the anchor for everything else in a factored estimate, and working capital is assessed once the fixed investment is known. A seasonal plant usually needs a larger working capital proportion than the standard figures suggest.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3, 4

Reception and washing, then preparation, peeling and cutting, then thermal processing and filling, then packing and despatch. The sequence matters as much for hygiene as for logic: the material becomes progressively cleaner and more processed as it moves in one direction through the building, so raw and finished product never meet.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3, 4

The chain runs: one stage is rated below the others → material accumulates ahead of it while the faster stages stand idle → plant throughput falls to that stage’s capacity → the capital in the faster stages earns nothing. The last is the commercial consequence of the first.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 1, 2, 3, 4

Debottlenecking is iterative: find the slowest stage, uprate or duplicate it, find the new limiting stage - because relieving one constraint always reveals another - and repeat until the target is met or the next step costs more than it is worth.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Only three

Three pairs are right: the flow sheet shows the sequence of operations and streams, the material balance the quantities in each, and the layout the physical positions. The fourth is wrong - the electrical single line diagram is a separate drawing altogether, and a process flow sheet says nothing about it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Only three

Equipment, buildings and installation are all fixed capital, and raw material stocks are working capital - three correct. The fourth is wrong: depreciation is neither. It is an accounting charge that writes down the fixed capital over time, not a category of capital employed.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Only three

Three pairs are right: process layout for low volume and a wide range, product layout for high volume and a narrow one, and product layout for minimum handling - the material moves in a straight line. The fourth reverses the argument: process layout gives flexibility across many products, not for a single one, and for a single product a product layout is better in every respect.