DOI: 10.22146/jrekpros.41517 Copyright © 2018 THE AUTHOR(S). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Distribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. e-ISSN 2549-1490 p-ISSN 1978-287X JURNAL REKAYASA PROSES Research article / Vol. 13, No. 1, 2019, hlm. 57-64 Journal homepage: http://journal.ugm.ac.id/jrekpros Pemanfaatan Limbah Kulit Kakao Menjadi Briket Arang sebagai Bahan Bakar Alternatif dengan Penambahan Ampas Buah Merah Syarifhidayahtullah 1* , Rochim Bakti Cahyono 2 , Muslikhin Hidayat 2 1 Magister Teknik Sistem, Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Gadjah Mada Jl. Teknika Utara No. 3 (Timur PAU), Barek, Yogyakarta, 55281 2 Departemen Teknik Kimia, Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Gadjah Mada Jl. Grafika No. 2 Yogyakarta, 55281 *Alamat Korespondensi: syarifkore4@gmail.com (Submisi: 3 Desember 2018; Revisi: 30 April 2019; Penerimaan: 5 Mei 2019) A B S T R A C T The conversion of cocoa shell waste into char briquettes has been carried out through various methods. However, the product characteristics do not meet the SNI briquettes requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to improve process engineering by mixing cocoa peel waste with red fruit pulp to get char briquettes in order to improve quality of briquette products. This research was carried out through pyrolysis process with temperthwatures up to 500 o C and held for 4 hours. The research objective was to produce char briquettes from cacao pod shell waste with the addition of red fruit pulp and its characteristic test. The study was designed with 2 variables, namely independent variables in the form of char raw material powder that passed 50 mesh sieve, weight ratio of cocoa shell char powder and red fruit pulp char powder (100:0, 70:30, 50:50, 30:70, and 0%:100%), pressure (100 kg/cm 2 ), 10% starch adhesive from raw materials, and briquette diameter of 40 mm. Whereas the dependent variables are the moisture content (%), volatile content (%), ash content (%), fixed carbon content (%), and calorific value (cal/g). The results showed that the process of pyrolysis of char briquettes waste cocoa shell with red fruit pulp can increase its calorific value. The best characteristics of briquette were obtained from mixed briquettes (composition of 30%:70%) with moisture content of 5.63%, volatile content of 18.65%, ash content of 9.45%, fixed carbon content of 66.27%, and calorific value of 6422 cal/g. Keywords: char briquettes; characteristics of char briquette; cocoa shell; pyrolysis; red fruit pulp A B S T R A K Pemanfaatan limbah kulit buah kakao menjadi briket arang telah banyak dilakukan melalui berbagai metode tetapi belum memenuhi persyaratan SNI briket arang. Oleh karena itu, perlu diupayakan untuk mendapatkan briket arang yang memenuhi persyaratan SNI. Salah satunya dengan cara mencampurkan limbah kulit kakao dengan ampas buah merah karena ampas buah merah memiliki nilai kalor yang cukup tinggi. Penelitian ini dilakukan melalui proses pirolisis dengan suhu sampai dengan 500 o C dan ditahan selama 4 jam. Tujuan penelitian untuk memproduksi briket arang dari limbah kulit buah kakao dengan penambahan ampas buah merah serta uji karakteristiknya. Penelitian dirancang dengan 2 variabel, yaitu variabel bebas (independent variable) berupa ukuran serbuk bahan baku arang yang lolos saringan 50 mesh, rasio massa campuran serbuk arang kulit kakao dengan serbuk arang ampas buah merah (100:0, 70:30, 50:50, 30:70, dan 0%:100%), tekanan pengempaan (100 kg/cm 2 ), perekat kanji 10% dari bahan baku, dan diameter briket 40 mm. Variabel terikat (dependent variable) yang diukur yaitu kadar air (%), kadar zat mudah menguap (%), kadar abu (%),