DESIGN HARNESSING HOT SPRINGS ENERGY SYSTEM FOR COCOA BEANS DRYING

Geothermal energy is a one type source of alternative energy. Countries like United
Stated, Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada and Turkey have used this energy for
some applications such as for electricity generation, space and district heating, air
conditioning, greenhouse heating and others. The presence of volcanoes, hot springs and
other thermal phenomena lead people to explore and study energy produced inside earth.
In Malaysia, there are also some places have the hot springs in Tambun, Sungkai,
Pengkalan Hulu, Manong and others and currently use for recreation and tourism. For
this project, the author wants to study and understanding this one type of alternative
energy and design suitable system to harness hot spring's energy and used for cocoa
beans drying (industrial application). The problems that are being created from energy
price hiking and our equator climate lead the author to find the solutions. The target is to
design a suitable system which can harness hot spring's energy and applied it on cocoa
beans drying process. Since the energy is free and continuously produced inside the
earth, the author wants to find the way how to commercial the energy. The important
elements that need to be determine before starts the design is the behaviour of cocoa
beans while drying and the unknowns related to the design that must being determine
using the experiment and engineering calculations. The design must be in details for
future works. This project can solve the problems of inconsistently weather condition
and high price for fuel and gas that being used for artificial drying. This project also can
make improvement with maximizing the quantity of the dried cocoa beans without
affecting the quality.