Carbonization Furnace Innovations To Improve Coconut Processing Efficiency

Inefficient production processes will encourage waste, resulting in high production costs. Energy is an important factor for a lot of industries, especially in the integrated coconut processing industry. Carbonization or the coconut shell charcoal process is generally inefficient besides it also produces a lot of smoke pollution in the charring process, for more details, please read here. This much wasted energy should be used for various coconut processing, such as making white copra, dessicated coconut (DC), nata de coco, and drying cocofiber or cocopeat. Furthermore, the smoke that comes out of the carbonization process can also be condensed so as to produce liquid smoke product. With the above configuration, the carbonization furnace can be used optimally as well as waste or smoke pollution can also be minimized as little as possible. A simple carbonization furnace scheme is as follows:

The input of the carbonization furnace is mainly coconut shell, but coir/fiber, bunch, and frond can also be used. A heat exchanger is installed to extract or utilize heat from the carbonization process. The air from the environment after passing through the heat exchanger will become hot. The hot air produced can then be used as needed as above. In the production of white copra where only clean hot air is needed, not from smoke or flue gas can take advantage of this hot air, as well as in the production of dessicated coconut (DC). Coconut water, which is still disposed of so much that it pollutes the environment, should also be processed into nata de coco or vinegar. The process of boiling coconut water for the two products above can also take advantage of the heat from the carbonization furnace. With energy costs that can be cut or minimized in this way, coconut processed products become more competitive and provide additional benefits for the producers.

Owls, Cobra Snakes or Liquid Smoke to Repel Mice at Palm Oil Plantations?

Mice are animals that disrupt various human activities so they must be expelled or killed. Many stories from farmers who experienced crop failure due to rampant rat pests. Likewise in palm oil plantations, rats will damage the palm fruit. Biological countermeasures are mostly carried out, namely with owls and cobra snakes. While other efforts that can be done is by liquid smoke. Aside from being used for fertilizer, liquid smoke can also be used to repel these mice. A strong aroma and an acidic nature will make the mice away from the palm oil trees that have been given liquid smoke. The longer the effect of liquid smoke on the palm oil tree the longer the mice away from the palm tree.

Liquid smoke does not harm humans and can be produced in large quantities. Besides that liquid smoke also comes from biomass (pyrolysis) so that it is an environmentally friendly chemical and from renewable sources. Empty bunches or EFB which have generally not been utilized by palm oil mills can be used for the production of liquid smoke. In addition to liquid smoke, biochar is also produced which is also very useful in the palm oil plantations, for more details, please read here. Production of liquid smoke and biochar from EFB will also be a solution to handling solid waste in the form of empty bunches. The production of biochar and liquid smoke for large scale can be done only with continuous pyrolysis units, for more details, please read here.

While when biochar and liquid smoke are used in oil palm plantations, the pyrolysis product in the form of syngas and biooil can be used for boiler fuel. When syngas and biooil are used as fuel, palm kernel shells and a number of mesocarp fibers can be sold or exported like CPO. PKS (palm kernel shell) or shell can be exported directly to Japan or Korea. Whereas mesocarp fiber can be made pellets or briquettes before being exported. Production of pellets or briquettes from mesocarp fiber is almost the same as the production of wood pellets or sawdust briquettes, for reference can be read here and here.

Back to the laptop. So the production of liquid smoke from pyrolysis of empty palm bunches is more likely to be a solution to overcome rat pests in addition to various other advantages for palm oil plantations and mills. In addition, liquid smoke can also be used for fertilizers and is not harmful. Even to optimize the control of rodent pests is very possible with a combination of liquid smoke with owls and cobra snakes.