PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF COCONUT SHELL CHARCOAL BRIQUETTES IN TERMS OF VARIATIONS IN IMMERSION TIME AS AN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCE

The utilization of coconut as one of the plantation crops is a very promising export commodity. Almost all parts of
the coconut plant can be used optimally, whether it is made of copra, food, crafts, and others. It's just that in the process of
utilizing coconut skin, the coconut shell which is in the form of flakes or fragments is sometimes used as useless garbage.
Therefore, coconut shell flakes will be used as an alternative fuel in the form of coconut shell charcoal briquettes. In the
previous research process as an alternative fuel is sometimes less effective because it depends on variations in materials or
additives. This study aims to obtain the maximum thermal efficiency with several variations of immersion. The research
method is an experimental method by utilizing coconut shell as an alternative fuel on the stove with variations in soaking
time. The results showed that the variation of immersion 20 minutes was superior in terms of length of ignition time, the
mass of burned briquettes, ability to boil water, and thermal efficiency, respectively, 196 minutes, 0.38 kg, 12 kg, and 52.12%
were obtained.