CPCRI launches portable coconut sap chiller

The Kasaragod-centered Central Plantation Crops Investigation Institute (CPCRI) has released a moveable coconut sap chiller for the assortment of hygienic and unfermented sap (‘Kalparasa’) from the coconut spadix.

KB Hebbar, Head of Plant Physiology, Biochemistry and Put up-Harvest Engineering of CPCRI, informed BusinessLine that even though the institute experienced previously produced a coconut sap chiller, production of it was a time-consuming method as it experienced to be assembled manually. With the boost in demand from customers from the coconut-increasing States for the chiller, the well timed offer of the unit was a little bit challenging.

He mentioned now the institute, with the economical aid from the Kochi-centered Coconut Growth Board (CDB), has created and fabricated moulds demanded for the large-scale manufacturing of coconut sap chiller. The moulds have previously been commissioned for the professional manufacturing of the coconut sap chiller.

The new moveable coconut sap chiller is a double jacketed box built of HDPE (Superior Density Polyethylene), insulated by polyurethane foam in concerning the jackets. The unit has provision for inserting ice, a ‘Kalparasa’ assortment container, a spadix holder, top rated lid, a funnel and provision to hook up the box on the tree top rated. It has a assortment potential of 3 litres of ‘Kalparasa’.

The coconut sap chiller is lighter in pounds, water proof, simple to hook up to the spadix, requires considerably less ice, and retains lower temperature for a longer interval as when compared to commercially readily available ice bins, he mentioned.

Electricity efficiency

On the performance analysis carried out on coconut sap chiller at CPCRI and other destinations, he mentioned the new HDPE chiller is extremely energy productive and the ice cubes past virtually 24 several hours as in opposition to 10-12 several hours of the present bins. It is extremely charge productive, as the manufacturing is finished in factories making use of the moulds. The manufacturing charge has now come down to around ₹850 per piece. This excludes packing, transport and GST. The former product was costing more than ₹2000 per piece, he mentioned.

Although there was a setback on coconut sap tapping owing to Covid, even now virtually 3,000 items of the chillers had been procured by Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and West Bengal in the past handful of months, he mentioned.

A lot of farmers and coconut producer organizations have expressed their curiosity to procure the chiller not only for tapping coconut but also for palmyra and day palm.

Intended and produced by Hebbar and AC Mathew, Principal Scientist at CPCRI, the institute has supplied licence to the Mangaluru-centered Kalyaniram Polyplast Pvt Ltd to manufacture, pack and offer the requisite figures of chillers to end customers on behalf of CPCRI for people who indication technology transfer with the institute.

He mentioned the sap collected by coco-sap chilller at lower temperature is entirely unique from the ‘neera’ collected by common technique with or devoid of preservatives, and as a result it was named as ‘Kalparasa’. He mentioned that ‘Kalparasa’ has been granted trade mark by Mental Residence India. Sap collected making use of the coco-sap chiller is golden brown in color, scrumptious and totally free from contaminants this sort of as bugs, ants, and pollen and dust particles. It contained a lot of well being selling substances like polyphenols, anti-oxidants, vitamins, amino acids and minerals, he included.