< Back to front page Text size – +

Chocolate by-product produces sweet, green energy

Print | Comments () Posted by Beth Daley March 3, 2009 05:37 PM

E-mail

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Here at the green blog we hear of all sorts of interesting energy possibilities from waste products but a test burn at a Portsmouth, N.H. power plant today is by far the most creative: Cocoa bean shells.

Cocoa shells to burn (PSNH)

Chocolate maker Lindt USA and Public Service of New Hampshire’s Schiller Station in Portsmouth had a test run today mixing one part cocoa bean to 33 parts coal and burning it to produce electricity in a boiler at the plant.

If it works – and only time will tell – Lindt will start sending the power plant cocoa bean shells from its Stratham facility when it starts producing its own chocolate from raw cocoa beans by the end of the year.

Some cocoa shells in the chocolate industry are already used as garden mulch but if the project is viable, it is believed to be the only cocoa bean-to-energy project in the U.S. chocolate industry.

Any other ideas out there for interesting fuels?

tags beans, chocolate, coal, Cocoa, energy