A preliminary study on use of cocoa pod husk as a renewable source of energy in Indonesia

Indonesia is the third largest producer of cocoa bean in the world. One of the residues produced after removal of the cocoa bean from the fruit is cocoa pod husk (CPH). The objective of this work was to assess the use of CPH as a renewable energy source. CPH was sun-dried, crushed, and screened to obtain a particle size of less than 1 mm. Five grams mixture of CPH and binder in the proportion of 70% and 30% by weight respectively was pelletized and dried at 50 °C for 5 hours. Carbonization was performed at 400 °C for 2 hours. The results show that CPH has a high heating value of 17.0 MJ/kg. The air flow rate and fuel composition significantly affected the burning time and CO emission factor. The increase of carbonized CPH portion in the fuel increased the burning time of the pellet. The increase of air flow rate and carbonized CPH portion also increased the emission factor of CO.