HUSK OF HOPE: CHOCOLATE WITHOUT GUILT

Partial photo: Tetiana Bykovets

As someone admittedly addicted to chocolate, I am delighted to be able to report that there’s a way to use the bean shells, pod husks and cocoa sweatings (a pale yellowish liquid that drains away during fermentation) to create renewable energy. The Ivory Coast has begun work on a biomass plant able to run on cocoa waste burned to turn a turbine and generate electricity, much like a conventional fossil-fuel power plant. It might be able to meet the electricity needs of 1.7 million people. The facility could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4.5 million tons, compared with existing power sources. In Ghana, cocoa husks are already being used to generate power on a micro-scale.

www.bbc.com/future/article/20210607-a-chocolatey-sustainable-alternative-to-fossil-fuels