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Vanuatan entrepreneur Tony Deamer has adapted his fleet of rental cars to run on coconut oil, a plentiful local commodity. Unlike with many biofuels, coconut oil doens't need to be transesterized - mixed with sodium hydroxide and alcohol to change its chemical composition - to run in a diesel engine. Filtered and warmed to temperatures about 25C, coconut oil is a better than satisfactory substitute for "mineral diesel" - it burns more slowly, which produces more even pressure on engine pistons, reducing engine wear, and lubricates the engine more effectively. Deamer runs most of his vehicles on a mixture of 85% coconut oil and 15% kerosene, but has demonstrated that modified diesel engines run filtered coconut oil quite happily.
www.worldchanging.com/archive...520.html
www.worldchanging.com/archive...520.html
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Hawaii
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Thu, September 29, 2005 - 5:38 PMman i wish his name was really Tony Dreamer, how sweet would that be. anyhoo, this is fricking glorious information. bring your secret formula to hawaii Dreamer Man, bring it, vee vill make you a very velthy man. -
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Wed, October 12, 2005 - 11:17 AMtheres no secret formula. its straight-up SVO use as far as I can see. Formula; convert your car to wvo ($600-$2000). Find your coconut oil source, filter oil, add to heated tanks, drive.
The info I'm seaching for right now is how much coconut you need for a gallon of oil, and can an oil press fit in the back of a truck? -
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Wed, October 12, 2005 - 11:21 AMi am baffled by these blending people. Kerosene? Regular Unleaded gasoline? Naptha? The things people put in their VO when they can just heat it and run it straight... -
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Wed, October 12, 2005 - 2:30 PMthese guys are mixing because they haven't put in a heater or extra tank.
its a funny thing here, because of the climate you don't really need a heater and extra tank. however just straight VO is still a bit too viscous. so as a middle ground between $600-2000 and petro-diesel they are mixing. i agree that it is weird. therefore i will use biodiesel (cause i don't have time to collect SVO, neither do i have the immediate cash to do the conversion). but on the islands where biodiesel isn't available and people don't have cash the VO mixture thing seems to be the only choice. anyways don't you need to use petro-diesel to start up, even when you've got a preheater? isn't that why you need two tanks?
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Wed, October 12, 2005 - 5:04 PMOkay, so I've been looking at vegetable oil yield on a site that was linked to from Ben's reference...
Seems that coconut oil *is* one of the highest yielding crops, with some of the best characteristics for use in warm-weather climates.
journeytoforever.org/biodies...eld.html
Though, one must still consider this:
"The coconut palm starts fruiting 6 to 10 years after the seed germinates and reaches full production at 15 to 20 years of age. It continues to fruit until it is about 80 years old with an annual production of 50 to 200 fruits per tree. The fruits require about a year to develop and are generally produced regularly throughout the year. "
[Source: University of Florida, Coconut Fact Sheet, HS-40
April 1994]
As far as I know, there aren't many existing coconut groves in the Hawaiian Islands. At least not big enough to produce fuel on much of a scale, anyhow. Still, the idea is neat and worth further investigating.
It wonder if people will have the will to start a coconut planting initiative, knowing that it could be 15-20 years before they start seeing the real fruits of their labors... -
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Wed, October 12, 2005 - 5:37 PMWE MUST PLANT OUR NUTS!!!!!
west mexico has vast vast vast amounts of coconuts, all grown up and nuttin'. and they are much much closer than saudi arabia. you could even tie em up in a coconut fiber net bag and float em over here. no need cargo ships. i'll volunteer to woman a coco-raft.
anyways 15 years is manini. that's about how long it'll take the american public to even accept the possibility anyways. think about it 15 years ago people were smirking at computers. 10 years ago they said cell phones are nonsense... technology and coconuts grow at about the same rate (maybe a little faster) than human acceptance of change. -
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Wed, October 12, 2005 - 10:41 PMYou're NUTS, Bryna... I like that!
Actually, there are a thousand uses for the coconut. Seems Gilligan's Island wasn't too far off the mark, afterall...
In this day and age we really have gotten too used to thinking fast, and now we have a really difficult time thinking long. Generations ago farmers had planted trees knowing their grandkids would be the first to ever see the fruits of their labors. These days most in our society have a hard time looking beyond next month, to say nothing of the next decade. I think the start of the U.S. economic demise is upon us, and when it all finally becomes apparent that we can no longer sustain all that we take for granted, people will start to adjust their thinking accordingly.
China Daily recently published an article with the title:
"It's time to take seriously a US-led global recession"
www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...2807.htm
Do have a look at it. They're not pulling any punches...
Yes, it's time to plant our nuts!
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Thu, October 13, 2005 - 2:19 AMWe don't need to plant our nuts. We just need to show that there is a need to plant our nuts. Our job is for the present. We need to create a demand for veg oil. Whatever form that takes. And we need to create that demand now. Once the demand is there, the nuts will flow! Once we create a demand for vegoil fuel, farmers being subsidized by the government because they can barely pay to fix their tractor will convert their fields to a more lucrative crop. Namely, anything that produces veg oil.
Talking about 15 year crop returns and permaculture is biting off way more than we can chew. What we need to actually do (and do as in really DO, not just verbally masturbate) is create a demand for veg oil fuel. We need to convert vehicles and engines, and alot. The conversion isn't tough, and veg oil is easy to get. I know my next car will be a conversion-ready diesel.
Let's start buying diesel vehcles, converting them, and reselling them. Now only if they would start bringing those diesel-electric hybrids over here. -
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Re: Biodiesel cars can run on plain filtered coconut oil
Thu, October 13, 2005 - 4:38 PMVery good point, Jim. Makes sense and sounds like a sure-fire lucrative business. Used diesel vehicles are getting increasingly difficult to find--both here and on the mainland,. Still, they are out there. And new diesels aren't hard to get, though comparatively expensive...
Here's a company to model:
www.greencarco.com/
Aloha,
+kenrom-
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