Post by LSDeep on Jan 31, 2005 12:04:19 GMT -5
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius (24 Jan 2005) -- Struggling with rising oil prices, Pacific island nations are increasingly looking to coconut oil, long a basic foodstuff and massage lubricant, as an economically and ecologically sound petroleum alternative.
Pacific island officials gathered in Mauritius last week for a UN conference on small islands extolled the virtues of the coconut in reducing dependence on imported petrol and in potentially boosting ailing local economies.
Coconut oil is seen as an inexpensive and efficient renewable energy source, particularly in Vanuatu, a Pacific archipelago inhabited by 217,000 people. It spends about 20 percent of its annual budget on imported petroleum.
"It's a huge cost for a small economy like us," Vanuatu's environment minister, Russell Nari, said on the sidelines of the conference. "If we have enough funds to produce coconut oil and if we don't have to fight against the oil lobby, islands may reduce seriously their dependency."
Coconut oil was first used as fuel in the Pacific during World War 2, when a fuel shortage gripped the Philippines, forcing residents to look for alternatives, according to Espen Ronneberg of the Marshall Islands, and who serves as a regional adviser to small developing islands.
"Some clever people discovered that you can mix diesel and coconut oil to run the engine."
The concept was abandoned with the end of the war but restarted several years ago as the price of oil began to skyrocket, he said.
The idea got a boost in June last year, when energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged that more priority be given to renewable energy sources, including coconut and palm oil.
Today, residents of Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and the Cook Islands use coconut oil as fuel for diesel engines but still on a relatively small scale. About 100 private buses in Vanuatu's capital of Port Vila were powered at least in part by coconut oil, as were similar vehicles in the Marshall Islands, officials said.
In addition to reducing dependency on foreign petroleum, coconut oil offers several other advantages. Nari said it did not pollute and it had a "beautiful smell".
It is also cheaper, costing about $0.80 (R4.80) a litre, compared with $1.17 for the same amount of diesel.
The fuel can be used to power all diesel engines without any technical modifications.
Nari said it took about five coconuts to make a litre of fuel, and the process was similar to that used to produce massage oil, although it required more purification.
If it catches on as a fuel source, it could rescue those Pacific island economies that have been hard hit by plummeting prices for coconut oil, one of their chief exports.
"It's a disaster because entire families depend on coconuts," Nari said. "This could bring about a new life."
Despite high hopes for coconut oil to become a leading fuel source in the Pacific islands, its use would be problematic in the developed world, according to Ronneberg.
Coconut oil's lone drawback appeared to be that it could be used as fuel only at a minimum ambient temperature of 17°C. But if industrialised countries were interested, perhaps they could find a way to heat the oil, he said.
SOURCE - AFP
Pacific island officials gathered in Mauritius last week for a UN conference on small islands extolled the virtues of the coconut in reducing dependence on imported petrol and in potentially boosting ailing local economies.
Coconut oil is seen as an inexpensive and efficient renewable energy source, particularly in Vanuatu, a Pacific archipelago inhabited by 217,000 people. It spends about 20 percent of its annual budget on imported petroleum.
"It's a huge cost for a small economy like us," Vanuatu's environment minister, Russell Nari, said on the sidelines of the conference. "If we have enough funds to produce coconut oil and if we don't have to fight against the oil lobby, islands may reduce seriously their dependency."
Coconut oil was first used as fuel in the Pacific during World War 2, when a fuel shortage gripped the Philippines, forcing residents to look for alternatives, according to Espen Ronneberg of the Marshall Islands, and who serves as a regional adviser to small developing islands.
"Some clever people discovered that you can mix diesel and coconut oil to run the engine."
The concept was abandoned with the end of the war but restarted several years ago as the price of oil began to skyrocket, he said.
The idea got a boost in June last year, when energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged that more priority be given to renewable energy sources, including coconut and palm oil.
Today, residents of Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and the Cook Islands use coconut oil as fuel for diesel engines but still on a relatively small scale. About 100 private buses in Vanuatu's capital of Port Vila were powered at least in part by coconut oil, as were similar vehicles in the Marshall Islands, officials said.
In addition to reducing dependency on foreign petroleum, coconut oil offers several other advantages. Nari said it did not pollute and it had a "beautiful smell".
It is also cheaper, costing about $0.80 (R4.80) a litre, compared with $1.17 for the same amount of diesel.
The fuel can be used to power all diesel engines without any technical modifications.
Nari said it took about five coconuts to make a litre of fuel, and the process was similar to that used to produce massage oil, although it required more purification.
If it catches on as a fuel source, it could rescue those Pacific island economies that have been hard hit by plummeting prices for coconut oil, one of their chief exports.
"It's a disaster because entire families depend on coconuts," Nari said. "This could bring about a new life."
Despite high hopes for coconut oil to become a leading fuel source in the Pacific islands, its use would be problematic in the developed world, according to Ronneberg.
Coconut oil's lone drawback appeared to be that it could be used as fuel only at a minimum ambient temperature of 17°C. But if industrialised countries were interested, perhaps they could find a way to heat the oil, he said.
SOURCE - AFP