Utilization of Tea Tree Branches as a Source of Thermal Energy

Abstract

Energy has an important role in the survival of the tea processing industry. The costs for energy generation and application have a large contribution to the total cost of the tea processing. The use of fuel oil and electricity, especially in the drying process is the biggest energy user stage. In line with the development of Indonesia's tea processing industry, it is felt necessary to immediately utilize the source of biomass in tea plantations through the application of gasification technology. The development of tea processing in the future should pay more attention to aspects of energy and the environment as the main discussion. This study aims to examine the development of gasification technology in converting biomass as thermal energy to meet gas quality in the tea drying process. The hypothesis is that through the gasification biomass technology of tea plantations, will produce gas as thermal energy that meets the quality of the tea drying process. The target to be achieved is in the form of laboratory technical data for the design, operation of the process, scale-up and evaluation of the performance of the gasifier which includes flame propagation, simulation of combustion and optimum operating conditions with temperature process variables, air flow rate and gas products, tea biomass capacity, and the length of the gasification process.