Chocolate Power!

Can chocolate help the environment?

Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), the state’s largest electricity producer, and Lindt Chocolate in Stratham, New Hampshire, have come together to go green with chocolate.

Lindt will begin processing chocolate at its plant in Stratham by the end of 2009. The company plans to contribute its leftover cocoa bean shells to PSNH. 

PSNH is experimenting with turning those shells into electricity by burning them along with coal in their Schiller Station power plant in Portsmouth. Mixing a biomass product like cocoa shells with coal reduces the amount of carbon dioxide the power plant emits into the atmosphere.

PSNH and Lindt hope that by burning this mixture they might be able to reduce each of their companies’ carbon footprints. Both PSNH and Lindt hope that replacing a fossil fuel with a biomass product like cocoa shells will lead to greener power.

—Chloe Conway

PHOTO: Cocoa beans in a shell sits on a bag of already shelled cocoa beans. The discarded shell can be burned to produce energy. Credit: istockphoto.com

Comments

[Heath]

How does burning the cocoa shells put less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? Are they not just adding more carbon dioxide by burning more stuff? Would burying the shells or using them for mulch be a better choice?