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Journalism of Courage
Earlier this month engineers at Public Service of New Hampshire,the state8217;s largest electric utility,successfully tested a novel fuel mixture for one of its electricity-generating boilers: coal tempered with cocoa-bean shells. Hedonists have long rhapsodised about the seductive power of chocolate; now cocoa power may light homes as well.
The 36,000 pounds 16,400kg of bean shells used in the test came to the plant from Europe by way of Lindt USA,a subsidiary of Lindt amp; Sprüngli in Switzerland,which operates a truffle-manufacturing plant in nearby Stratham. At the moment,the plant imports large blocks of chocolate from across the Atlantic to make into its Lindor truffles,but according to Peter Breed,the engineering manager at Stratham,the operation expects to begin processing its own cocoa beans into chocolate in the first quarter of 2010.
The shells,which have a thermal value similar to that of wood,will be mixed with the coal in a 1-to-33 ratio. An important part of the test was to see whether the power company8217;s coal-grinding machinery could also grind cocoa-bean shells to the required talcum-like powdery fineness; the machinery performed admirably.
State officials,who had previously approved the utility8217;s conversion of another boiler to burn wood,watched the testing procedure closely. Negotiating the necessary permits for the test took nearly two years,incredible though that might seem. Observers and neighbours,meanwhile,did a lot of sniffing. But to everyone8217;s disappointment,coal and cocoa shells burned together do not fill the air with the sweet smell of chocolate.
The Economist Newspaper Limited 2009
