Cocos Nucifera: An Abundant Renewable Source of Energy

Walter L. Bradley, Jason Poel, and Howard Huang

Baylor University, Waco, Texas 76798

Introduction

Cocos Nucifera trees, otherwise known

as coconut palm trees, grow abundantly along
the coast line of countries within 15o of the
equator. They prosper in sandy, saline soil and
in tropical climates. A healthy coconut tree
will produce approximately 120 watermelon-
sized husks per year, each with a coconut
imbedded inside. There are three constituents
of the Cocos Nucifera that can be used for
fuel: the husk, the coconut shell, and the
coconut oil that is in the white coconut
“meat”, or copra as it is usually called. Thus,
the coconut tree is a very abundant, renewable
resource of energy. We have been invest-
igating the production of energy from these Figure 1. Coconut tree with husks
three constituents of coconuts and their husks.

Figure 2. A coconut husk with embedded coconut Figure 3. Coconut and husk

Proceedings of the International Conference on Renewable Energy for Developing Countries-2006

Energy Conversion Options for Coconuts and their Husks

There are at least three ways that coconuts and their husks can be converted into useful energy.
First, the oil in the copra of the coconut can be expelled and used to make coconut bio-diesel to
fuel a diesel generator to make electricity. Alternatively, the coconut oil can be burned directly in
a modified diesel generator. Second, the coconut husk and shell might be used in a biomass
converter to produce combustible gases that can then be used in a gas turbine to produce both
electricity and heat. Third, the coconut shell can be converted to charcoal and combustible gases
to be used in cooking or heating. We will discuss each of these options in turn, beginning with
the conversion of the energy in coconut oil into electricity.

Producing Electricity from Coconut Oil

The coconut oil is in the copra, or white “coconut meat”, as seen in Figure 3. A typical coconut
will have 0.36 kg of copra, including water, meal and coconut oil. Drying removes the 50% of
the mass that is water, leaving 0.18 kg of dry copra, 67% of which is coconut oil, or 12kg. The
most efficient extraction that can be done in a village using hand operated presses is 75% of this
oil, or 0.09 kg/coconut. Coconut oil has a density of 890 kg/m3, or .89kg/liter. Thus, 0.1 liter of
coconut oil can be produced from each coconut. The cost of the coconuts and the labor to
process them in a rural village setting in Papua New Guinea is about $0.07/coconut, or
$.70/liter.1

There are two options for converting the coconut oil into electricity. First one can chemically
process the coconut oil into bio-diesel, using standard procedures such as are used to convert
other vegetable oils into bio-diesel. The process is called transesterification and uses methanol as
a reactant and lye as a catalyst. The mixture is 1:5, methanol to coconut oil, with a yield of about
0.8 bio-diesel and 0.2 glycerin, which can be used to make soap. The equipment to make
coconut bio-diesel is inexpensive to purchase and simple to operate. We have run the coconut
bio-diesel in a diesel powered electric generator and it runs extremely well, with about 1/3rd the
emissions that one gets from conventional petroleum based diesel fuel. No modification of the
diesel engine is required. The additional cost of processing is about $.20/liter, but the sale of the
glycerin should more than compensate for this additional cost.

Figure 4. Equipment to make bio-diesel at Baylor Figure 5. Bio-diesel and glycerin

made at Baylor

Proceedings of the International Conference on Renewable Energy for Developing Countries-2006

A second option is to burn the coconut oil directly in a diesel generator. This cannot be done
without modification of the diesel engine. The coconut oil at room temperature is much too
viscous to be processed by the fuel pump and fuel injection system of the diesel engine.
However, if the coconut oil is preheated to approximately 70oC, then the viscosity is similar to
conventional diesel fuel and it can be burned directly in a diesel engine. This was first
demonstrated by Timothy Kopial2. Thus, the options are to modify the fuel to make coconut bio-
diesel or modify the diesel engine to allow for preheating of the fuel before it is used. The
efficiencies of conversion of the energy in the coconut oil, coconut oil bio-diesel and
conventional diesel fuel into electricity using the diesel generator were 19.7%, 20.3% and 22.4%
respectively.2

The second approach is preferred because methanol will not be easily available in rural villages
and it is both toxic and explosive, posing a danger to the village. However, there is a significant
concern about the startup and shut down of the diesel generator when using pure coconut oil. At
temperatures below ambient (22C), coconut oil can form a soft solid, much like butter. Thus, it is
likely that it will plug either the fuel pump or the fuel injection system. A compromise approach
might be to use a small amount of diesel fuel to start the generator, using the exhaust heat to heat
the coconut oil to be used as fuel. Once the coconut oil is heated to a sufficient temperature
(~70C) then, one could switch to coconut oil as the fuel. Just before shut down, the engine could
be returned to diesel fuel to be sure to clear the fuel system of coconut oil before shut down. This
will avoid startup problems.

Comparing Coconut Oil to Other Vegetable Oils for Generation of Electricity

It is interesting to determine the relative merits of coconut oil relative to other vegetable oils as a
potential fuel for diesel generators. This information for some common vegetable oils is
summarized in Table 1. The vegetable oils are listed in order of yield per hectare (note: a hectare
= 1000 m2 ~2.5 acres). Palm oil and coconut oil have extremely high yields compared to the
other vegetable oils. The iodine number measures the number of unsaturated bonds, which gives
an indication of the tendency of the oil molecules at elevated temperatures to chemically react
with other oil molecules, producing high viscosity sludge that can gum up a diesel engine’s fuel
injection system or values. Here a low number is desirable, and coconut oil is by far the lowest of
the vegetable oils, meaning it should burn without gumming up the diesel engine.

liters Iodine Centane Melting Point

Vegetable Oil oil/hectare Number Number -deg C
Palm Oil 5950 52 65 34
Coconut Oil 2689 9 70 23
Sunflower Oil 952 130 52 -18
Soybean Oil 446 132 53 -12
Cotton Seed Oil 325 108 55 0
Corn Oil 172 120 53 -5

Table 1. A comparison of properties of various vegetable oils3

The centane number is a measure of the ease with which fuels will spontaneously combust, since
diesel engines do not have spark plugs. Here the higher the number the greater the ease of

Proceedings of the International Conference on Renewable Energy for Developing Countries-2006

spontaneous combustion. Again, coconut oil is the highest of the vegetable oils. Finally, the
melting point is important as the fuel needs to be liquid to be processed by the fuel pump and
fuel injection system. A low melting point is obviously the best, and it is only here that coconut
oil is deficient. As previously noted, it is anticipated that this can be overcome by preheating the
coconut oil or by converting it into bio-diesel, which lowers the melting temperature to -9oC. In
summary, coconut oil seems to be superior to other vegetable oils in its yield and its physical
properties for use in diesel engine generation of electricity.

What Advantages does Coconut Oil Offer Over Diesel Fuel in Rural Villages?

The information provided above gives a price point for coconut oil that is similar to the price of
conventional diesel oil in some rural villages such as on the island of KarKar in Papua New
Guinea.4 What advantage would their be to setting up the necessary facilities to extract coconut
oil from coconuts when one can purchase petroleum based bio-diesel at a similar price? First, the
electrification of a village using coconut oil should be sustainable long-term as the natural
resources, namely coconuts, are readily available and renewable and the additional costs of
extracting the coconut oil are primarily wages paid to people in the village rather than as a flow
of capital from the village to the outside world. This also produces employment in the village,
allowing more people to be able to afford the electricity generated.

There is another extremely important advantage that is missed in just comparing the cost of the
coconut oil to bio-diesel. The production of one liter of coconut oil also generates 10 coconut
shells and husks, each of which has potentially significant value if subsequently processed. The
shells and husks can also be used as fuel or converted into other types of value added products.

Coconut shells have a specific gravity of 1.1, which is extremely high. As one would expect they
have a very high energy density. A coconut shell can be burned directly as fuel, though it tends
to burn extremely hot, which may not make it idea for cooking. However, it can be easily
processed into charcoal and combustible gases. Whereas 10 kg of wood makes only 1 kg of
charcoal, 10 kg of coconut shells, makes 3 kg of charcoal and 5.5 kg of combustible gases.5
Since 65% of the fuel consumption of people in developing countries is in cooking, this makes
the coconut shell a very valuable source of cooking fuel.

The large amount of biomass in the husks that are “waste” from the production of coconut oil
can also be utilized as fuel by processing it through a biomass gasification unit that converts it to
combustible gases that can then be used in a gas turbine to produce electricity and heat. Work is
now under way by David Hagen6 to explore how well coconut husks can be used in this way.

Alternative Uses for Husk, Coconut Shells, and Meal

While the coconut shells and husks may also be used for fuel, it seems likely that they can be
converted into more value-added alternative products. For example, we are currently exploring
the hot pressing of husks into particle board that could be used for housing in the village or sold
outside the village. There are encouraging reports in the literature that this is feasible.7 We are
also exploring the use of finely ground coconut shells as reinforcement in engineering plastics,
and again, others have show that this seems like a feasible application for coconut shells.8

Proceedings of the International Conference on Renewable Energy for Developing Countries-2006

Particle board that is 250 cm by 125 cm sells for $15 in Papua New Guinea, which is a very large
sum of money in this country.4

Chopped glass is a common reinforcement in filled engineering plastics, but the bonding
between the glass and the polymer is only fair. Since coconut shells are organic, one would
expect a much better bonding and therefore a better utilization of the ground coconut shell as
reinforcement. Filler for engineering plastics often sells at $1-$2/lb, which would generate a
great revenue stream for a village processing coconuts to make electricity.

Summary

Preliminary work done at Baylor University and reported by other in the literature suggests that
coconuts can be a very attractive renewable resource for rural electrification in developing
countries. This approach is much more sustainable than just importing diesel fuel and the
byproducts, shells and husks, can be processed into value-added products that create jobs and
income for the village.

References
1. Dan Etherington, Kokonut Pacific, www.kokonutpacific.com
2. Timothy Kopial, “Investigating the Possibility of Using Coconut Oil and Its Derivative as Fuel Substitution for
Diesel Engines”, MS Thesis, Papua New Guinea University of Technology, July 2005.
3. www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel
4. Sammy Aiau, personal communication [ssaiau@yahoo.co.uk], January 2006.
5. “Coconut turns to charcoal and gas”, New Scientist, January 16, 1986, p.30.
6. David Hagen, personal communication, hagendl@verison.net, December 2005.
7. Jan E.G. Van Dam, Martien J.A. van den Oever, Wouter Tenunissen, Edwin R.P. Keijsers, Aurora G. Peralta,
“Process for production of high density/high performance binderless boards from whole coconut husks”, Industrial
Crops and Products 19 (2004), p. 207-216.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Renewable Energy for Developing Countries-2006