Coconut Bio Diesel

Overview

Coconuts have been widely harvested in tropical coastal areas. The principal product of coconuts is copra, the dried flesh of the nut, from which coconut oil is extracted for use in food products such as margarine as well as in cosmetics and soap. In recent years the demand for copra has been falling, leading to declining incomes in areas that are heavily dependent on coconut and copra production.

Coconut bio diesel could become a dominant fuel in the Caribbean as governments move to reduce the import bills on overseas fuels.

The Caribbean has well established coconut plantations with an abundance of fresh coconuts with a declining market.

We believe that with an introduction of coconut bio diesel, this would revitalise the coconut industry.

Coconut will produce an average of 260-300 gallons per acre of coconut oil (bio diesel), and is one of the most efficient energy crops.

Coconut Crude

One of the most important agricultural crops in the Caribbean is copra - the dried meat of coconuts. The problem has been for a very long time that the market for this crop has been uneven and often prices have been too low to justify production. This could now change.

The new use is bio-diesel fuel. Oil from coconuts makes an excellent fuel for diesel engines. It burns more cleanly than its fossil counterpart, returning to the atmosphere only the carbon dioxide that the plant took out, and because of its chemical characteristics, causes less wear on engines by providing better lubrication, and gear boxes by providing more even power requiring less shifting. This has been known for twenty years or more, but now, with oil prices so high, it is being put to good use.

Vanuatu (between Australia and Fiji) used to import fossil fuel to run their electrical generators. At the same time, they were sending their copra to Fiji to be processed into coconut oil for sale on the world market. They spent money on importing diesel oil, and more money on

shipping copra to Fiji and still more money to have the copra processed. Now, Vanuatu processes its own copra into bio-diesel and uses it locally to generate electricity. In addition, it is used to power buses and taxis. The result is a huge savings, which the government passes along to the community in the form of higher prices for copra.

According to official figures, the Solomon Islands produce a maximum of 35,000 metric tons of copra every year, which is equivalent to 17 million litres of coconut oil.

Coconut bio-diesel is not going to solve the energy problems of the developed countries. But for island nations that just need small amounts for public transportation and electrical generation, it promises to provide a sustainable and eco-friendly supply of fuel that will greatly reduce dependence on outside help.

What is Coconut Bio Diesel?

Coconut Bio diesel has all of the typical attributes of B100 Bio diesel except Coconut Bio diesel is one of the best performing bio diesel fuels in terms of engine or turbine performance and overall emissions. Coconut Bio diesel is a renewable and biodegradable diesel fuel extracted from coconut plant oil. A natural hydrocarbon with negligible sulphur content, it will substantially help in reducing emissions from diesel-fed engines. It is now commonly used in the United States, Canada, Thailand, and many countries in Europe.

What is Coconut Methyl Ester?

Coconut Methyl Ester or CME is derived from coconut oil and is more appropriately known as Coconut Bio diesel. Compared with other forms of bio diesel, the medium carbon chain of Coconut Bio diesel fuel provides excellent lubricity, solvency and detergency. Studies show that the addition of Coconut Bio diesel results in better combustion, less pollution, and more engine power; the engines run smoothly – with longer maintenance intervals.

Because of these outstanding characteristics, Coconut Bio diesel is considered first-rate and highly adaptable.

Why use Coconut Bio Diesel?

Environmental & Health Benefits

· Is renewable and biodegradable, being plant-based.

· Lowers emission of nitrous oxide and sulphur oxide – the main contributors to smog.

· Significantly reduces serious air pollutants such as black smoke and air toxics that cause lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchitis, heart attack and stroke.

· Means less emission and cleaner air.

Economic benefits to vehicle owners and drivers

· Cuts maintenance costs because of its superior lubricating and cleaning properties.

· Promotes better, more efficient combustions and less engine vibration because if its higher cetane number and inherent oxygen content.

· Boosts engine power and acceleration.

· Improves fuel economy by as much as 20%, which means you get more mileage and big savings per litre.

Coconut Bio Diesel as Vehicle Fuel

The use of oil obtained from the nuts of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) for use as a B100 Bio diesel fuel has been supported the past several years by our company. The use of coconut oil and other vegetable oils in the production of B100 Bio diesel, or "Coconut Bio diesel," is not new. Even straight vegetable oils such as coconut oil have been used in the Philippines during the Second World War when diesel was in short supply. Since then the wide availability of diesel throughout the world and difficulties in running engines on coconut oil in cooler weather had virtually ended its use in this way. In recent years there has been a revival of interest in a number of countries, e.g. Thailand, India, the Philippines and some Pacific island states. This was due to the growing demand for diesel because numbers of vehicles and equipment were increasing, leading to higher prices and in some countries shortages. There were also concerns about growing import deficits and environmental pollution caused by increasing diesel use.

Coconut Oil Extraction

It has been suggested that better grades of copra should be used for producing coconut oil for B100 Bio diesel; however, this is untrue as the transesterification process resolves any issues that might have caused problems if using coconut oils as a fuel directly.

BABCO possesses proprietary technologies relating to coconut oil extraction, which further reduces the costs related to Coconut Bio diesel production. Normally, high-pressure screw presses are needed to extract the oil from copra, and these need to be powered with electricity or hydraulics. Others have found that coconut oil can be extracted from copra at a significantly lower pressure than normal when it has been dried to a particular moisture content, and simpler manually operated presses can be used. It can be quite difficult to dry the copra to the right level, so it is better dry it out as far as possible in the sun or a hot air drier, then add the necessary amount of water. The water would be mixed in with the oil product and would need to be removed before it could be used for fuel.

This process is being disseminated under the designation of Direct Micro Expelling (DME) and small mills have been set up by local people on various island states, including Kiribati, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu. Because the process can be carried out on a small scale this makes it accessible to coconut growers who can produce oil as a value-added product and are therefore less dependent on agents for the big oil producers who usually offer low prices for copra.

Coconut Bio Diesel and the Future

Coconut Bio diesel for many regions is the future of energy and power production. Our company, BABCO builds power plants that are fuelled with Coconut Bio diesel as the primary fuel to make power and energy. Coconut Bio diesel has numerous economic and environmental benefits and helps developing countries become energy independent, and simultaneously eliminates the need for petroleum products that pollute the environment and damage the economies of developing countries.

Economic benefits to the Coconut Industry.

· Will provide and establish a long-term, sustainable alternative domestic market and, as a result, will stabilize the domestic price of copra.

· Will enhance farm-based reintegration of coconut production, resulting in more income opportunities.

Economic Benefits for the Countries we build New Coconut Bio Diesel Plants In

· Will spearhead the introduction of the Coconut Bio diesel industry in the - an industry that would create more jobs.

· Will promote participation of the respective country in the potentially huge bio fuel industry.

· Will enhance energy supply security through the use of indigenous resources, at the same time resulting in foreign exchange savings.

· Will benefit millions of coconut farmers and others dependent on the coconut industry.

Palm Oil

This process involves the transesterification of crude palm oil into palm oil methyl esters or palm diesel. It has also been successfully demonstrated.

Palm bio fuel has been systematically and exhaustively evaluated as a diesel fuel substitute. These included laboratory evaluation, stationary engine testing and field trials on a large number of vehicles including taxis, trucks, passenger cars and buses. Exhaustive field trials of passenger buses have been successfully completed.

The advantages of palm bio fuel, drawn from the field trials are: no modification of the engines is required; good engine performance; cleaner exhaust emission; comparable fuel consumption with the petroleum diesel. The palm bio fuel can be used neat or blended with petroleum diesel in any proportions. Recently, to overcome the long-standing pour point problem of palm diesel (pour point = 15°C), MPOB has developed a process to produce low pour point palm bio fuel (-21°C to 0°C) which is suitable for temperate countries.

Palm bio fuel technology has great potential for commercialisation, as diesel engine application is widespread all over the world, especially in the agricultural and transport sector.

The benefits of the palm bio fuel project are many. It can provide a safety net for the palm oil industry in time of glut in the market. It is envisaged that by strategically removing the excess stock of palm oil from the market, its price can be stimulated to rise. Even if only 10% of the palm oil were allocated for the bio fuel project, it would further stabilise the price of palm oil in the international market.