| This paper aims to analyse the direct energy utilization in the processing of cocoa beans into powder using energy from the national grid and diesel engine in some cocoa processing factories located in South-western Nigeria. Energy consumption in the processing of cocoa beans into powder was evaluated for the eight major unit operations that cocoa processing entails, namely: cleaning, roasting, winnowing, milling, alkalizing, pressing, butter packing and grinding/sieving. The data obtained were imputed into existing energy equation to estimate the energy requirement for each of the eight unit operations. The results show that total energy expenditure in the processing of raw cocoa bean into powder were 1.815 and 2.384 MJ/Kg using national grid (PHCN) and... |
