Using coconut oil to churn out bio diesel

By Dr. H.A. Jayantha Gunathileke
Chairman, Coconut Cultivation Board

All over the world, the prices of petroleum products are escalating. In 1990, the price of a litre of diesel was about Rs.8. Today, it has exceeded Rs.70 and still spiraling further. The price rise in crude oil in the world market in this manner has severely affected inflation existent throughout the world.

German national, Radolf Diesel's historical comment made at the time of obtaining the patent rights for the diesel engine manufactured by him in 1912 is highly relevant and important today. "The use of plant oil as fuel may seem insignificant today. But such products can in time become just as important as Kerosene and these coal tar products of today".

Then in 1912, it was not an era for discussing subjects like energy crises, change of climatic systems and holes in ozone layer like today. But Radolf Diesel, who had foreseen the petroleum fuel crisis experienced by us today, had mentioned that oil obtained from trees/plants could be used, as an alternative for the above problem.

The diesel engine was created at a time when there was more than enough diesel in the world. What should be done today is to manufacture a suitable engine or adjust it to utilize the plant based oil now available in plenty. This job was initiated in 1970 by another German national called Ludwig Elsbete. Elsbete’s engine functions very well on plant oil. It is 40% more efficient than a normal Diesel engine.

What is Bio-diesel?
Bio-diesel is made from oil obtained from plants and is renewable and biodegradable. It is natural hydrocarbon and does not contain sulphur. Since no sulphur is emitted in combustion, the atmosphere is not polluted.

International and indigenous coconut oil market
The world coconut crop has become marginal from the 1960s; that is the income from this is gradually falling. Coconut oil production, which stood at 12.1% of the overall vegetable oil production of the world in 1960, has fallen to a position as low as 2.9% by 2004. Moreover, there has been a depression of -0.061% in the global coconut oil production from 1960 while a growth of + 9.6% in the palm kernel oil production is evident. Accordingly, not only in Sri Lanka but also in most of other coconut producing countries, coconut, as a form of economic crop, has fallen off. Therefore, the acreage under coconut cultivation and the production are dwindling on a global level. Due to these very circumstances, a situation has arisen where the coconut grower is unable to obtain a reasonable price for his product.

At present, because of the drop in the prices of coconut, interest among the farmers for cultivation of coconut has also reduced. In fact, it is during the period of scarcity of coconuts i.e. when there is a high demand for coconuts for local consumption during October- March that the coconut growers of this country get a proper price. The coconut grower does not obtain a high price because of the export of coconut oil and desiccated coconut at lower international price. Therefore, if coconut is to continue as an economic crop, a reasonable price should be available for the coconut produced by the coconut grower. For this purpose, new avenues of demands have to be explored through research and development.

World trends
In the recent past, before the scarcity of petroleum products such as diesel and their soaring prices to unbearable level, many countries in the world were conducting research to explore the possibility of using plant based oil such as coconut oil obtained from trees as fuel with European countries such as Denmark and Sweden in the forefront of these developments. In Sweden, there are even trains running on bio-diesel generated from rapeseed oil.

In India, a train runs daily from Amritsar to New Delhi on "Jatropa bio-diesel".

The first ever record of utilizing coconut oil as bio-diesel on a commercial scale was made in the city of Cibu in the Philippines. In February, 2004, the sale of coconut oil, coco methyl and coco bio-diesel commenced at filling stations in the city of Cibu.

Now there are 80 filling stations in the city of Cibu alone in the Philippines selling coco methyl ester produced from coconut oil and petrol containing ester while there are 48 filling stations in the same city selling diesel directly mixed with coconut oil. Still, as per prices prevailing in the Philippines, the price of coco diesel is 3% more than the petrol diesel. But the gap is speedily reducing. What is more important is that the vehicles using coco diesel can run 17% more distance.

There are about 3.5 million coconut growers in the Philippines.

The coconut crop is the economic mainstay of the people there, who numbers about 200 million. The important decision conveyed by President Gloria Arroyo’s administration by circular number 55 on 9th February, 2004 has to be followed by us in our country too without delay.

That is to say that for all vehicles belonging to government departments, corporations, boards and other state institutions must use methyl ester manufactured from coconut oil or 1 % of coco bio-diesel should be used. Moreover, the above circular had ordered that all oil companies operating within the Philippines should cooperate and contribute towards the implementation of this alternative energy process. Encouragement has been offered for sale of coco bio-diesel blended with 1% coconut oil in open market (outside filling stations).

At present, in the Philippines, about 60,000 tonnes of coconut oil per year is being converted into coco bio-diesel.

Processes of turning coconut oil into diesel
There are two ways of producing diesel out of coconut oil. In the first process, unpurified coconut oil is subjected to a process of purifying and filtering for producing purified coconut oil. 1% of this is directly blended with diesel. In the Marshall Islands, using this technology, filtered coconut oil up to 50% is blended with diesel and heavy machinery like ships and caterpillars are successfully operated. The efficiency of the engine is enhanced in this process and it has been confirmed that no adverse effect is caused to the engine. This has developed a great demand for coconut oil at present in the Marshall Islands.

The second process is somewhat complex. In this method, firstly separating glycerin from coconut oil, coco methyl ester is produced. Out of this too, methanol is removed and subjected to a further process of purification, Coco bio- diesel is manufactured. 10% of this can very easily be blended with diesel.

Characteristics of coco bio-diesel
Coco bio-diesel in every respect is better than petroleum diesel. It has five main advantages – oxygenated, high lubricity, sulfur-free, solvency and detergency and high octane.

While there may be different arguments in favour of vegetable oil obtainable from other plants against coconut oil in the production of bio-diesel. But the following table confirms that the coco bio-diesel is qualitatively higher than the other bio-diesel.

High quality of the Coco bio-diesel
The cocoa bio diesel obtained from coconut oil increases the combustion of the engine and thereby enhances the efficiency of the engine. As a result, vehicles using this fuel can run longer distances on a litre while the air emitted from the engine is clean.

Profitability of coco bio diesel
If coco bio diesel is to be used in a greater volume, it should be cheaper than the petro- diesel. The use of coco-diesel is profitable when compared with the present prevailing price of Rs 72 per litre of diesel. While a vehicle using ordinary diesel can run about 8 kilometers per litre, a vehicle using coco bio diesel can run 9 kilometers. Moreover, when compared with the environmental benefits and the efficiencies to be achieved, the country is placed at present in a situation requiring the use of coco bio diesel.

What should be done
Following the examples set by countries like the Philippines and the Marshall Islands, it is imperative that we should provide necessary encouragement and introduce required legislation and standards soon for the purpose. Accordingly, action needs to be initiated to use a volume of 1% of coconut oil as bio diesel. At the initial stages, encouragement can be given to use coconut oil in farm equipment and machinery such as tractors, water pumps etc. Subsequently, it can be extended to transport vehicles as well.

On the other hand, encouragement has to be given to investors for manufacturing methyl ester of a high quality out of coconut oil and the product should also be introduced to the market. Institutions working on the development of alternative energy resources should carry out research and development for this and the use of coco bio diesel for the first time should be used on vehicles owned by the state.

Is there sufficient crop?
In 2005, the country imported 30 million metric tonnes of diesel. If action is to be taken to blend 1% of coconut oil into the above quantity of diesel, the required quantity of coconut for the manufacture of necessary coconut oil has to come from a coconut plantation of 90,000 acres in extent.

Currently, only one million acres of coconut plantation is available in the country and since the demand generated from the above activity will be more than 10%, the demand for coconuts will increase and as a result, a better and reasonable price would automatically be available for the coconut grower. Extra quantity of coconut oil can be manufactured when there is excess yield (i.e. in the months of May- June) and it will be a significant investment to produce coco bio diesel out of the above extra oil and store it as a reserve.

Future challenges
The first challenge would be the influence emanating from petroleum oil companies with powerful financial backgrounds.

Therefore, state intervention is indispensable. Secondly, in order to ensure the quality, a standard has to be introduced for coco bio-diesel to be produced in homes.

There could be a shortage of coconuts for consumption and programmes have to be formulated to maintain equilibrium of prices of coco bio-diesel and to popularize the coco bio-diesel in the market.

Finally, plans have to be devised to grow more coconut to conserve the coconus plantations and offer more incentives.