Traditional lime preparation-A case study in coastal Orissa, India

The present paper describes the indigenous method of lime preparation in coastal Ganjam district, Orissa. Molluscs shells such as Anadara granosa (Khola), Meritrix meritrix (Gondhi), Meritrix casta (Pati) and Cerithidea cingulata (Genda) were mainly used for lime preparation. Average annual consumption of shell in wet lime and powder lime units was 89 Mg 208 Mg, respectively. For preparation of 100 kg wet lime and powder lime average consumption of shell were 48 kg and 117 kg, respectively. Per burning, average production of wet lime and powder lime was 1.423 Mg and 0.553 Mg, respectively. Annual production of wet lime was 197.6 Mg and powder lime was 180.4 Mg per unit. Inanimate energy expenditure in wet and powder lime units was 986 and 3120 GJ (average), respectively, while animate energy consumption was insignificant. Conservation of this traditional technology of lime preparation is suggested.