Biomass Waste of Cocoa Skin For Basic Activated Carbon as Source of Eco-Friendly Energy Storage

Abstract

Increased cocoa production is in line with the increasing biomass waste from cocoa skin. One way to reduce the buildup of biomass waste is to change the skin of cocoa into activated carbon. The purpose of this research is to utilize cocoa skin into activated carbon for supercapacitor electrodes with a combination of chemical and physical activation methods. Pre-carbonization with a temperature of 250°C for 2.5 hours, chemical activation with KOH activators 0.3 M and 0.4 M, with a physical activation temperature of 700°C. Characterization using FTIR, Thermal Gravimetry Analysis (TGA), Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray Energy Dispersion (EDX). The results showed that the density of activated carbon increased and the specific capacitance decreased with an increase in KOH concentration from 0.3 M to 0.4 M, with an activated carbon content of 87.87%. The density value is 0.850gr/cm3 and the specific capacitance is 90.2 F / gr at a concentration of 0.3 M, while at a concentration of 0.4 M the density value is 0.802 gr/cm3 with the specific capacitance of 140.2 F / gr. Utilization of cocoa skin waste into activated carbon with a combination of chemical and physical activation methods can be used as an energy storage to overcome the current energy crisis.