Identification of energetically critical processes for cocoa production in Santander, Colombia

Abstract

The intensification of industrial activities in post-harvest cocoa processes has generated a disproportionate increase in energy consumption. The objective of this work is to describe those energetically critical ones that are used in the cocoa production line in Santander so that further research can evaluate the implementa-tion of alternative or renewable energy systems. Through the collection of information and data manage-ment, it is seeking to promote the efficient use of energy based on the NTC ISO 500001. For this end, a description of the processes involved in the production of cocoa was made considering the technical data. Then, the energy consumed by the equipment used in the different processes was determined for 30 days, operating 24 hours a day, assuming power factors of 0.75 and 0.9. Finally, through analysis, calculations, and the application of the Pareto methodology, it was possible to identify that the process with the highest energy consumption is the cocoa refining step, since the equipment used in this process consumes more than 30% of energy from the total energy used for cocoa production.