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KEY ISSUES DISCUSSED BY THE SMALL ISLANDS VOICE GLOBAL FORUM
Additional
Information on Coconut Oil
PlantDrive.com
(www.plantdrive.com)
Received on 8th September 2005
As a subscriber to the Small Islands Voice, I am very happy to see
this sort of article appearing!
I wrote an MSc thesis in 2000 entitled "Renewable oil fuels and
diesel engines as components of sustainable system design",
and the research question was: "Are renewable oils as fuels
in diesel engine an economically and technically feasible component
of sustainable system design in both developed and developing
countries?"
This
led to founding Neoteric Biofuels, and now the "PlantDrive.com"
division and web site, and we have had much experience in developing
good systems to deal with the use of vegetable oil (plant oil)
fuels without conversion to "biodiesel" and without
blending with kerosene.
The experience we have gained in dealing with other oils at sub-Arctic
temperatures (we have customers using Canola oil at -30C, for
example), translates perfectly to use of coconut oil in warmer
climates. The issues are the same - how to work with oil that
goes solid or semi-solid.
The
most practical solution is to use the "two-tank heating approach"
The components used allow the engine to be started on a little
diesel or biodiesel fuel, run for a few minutes, and then switched
to straight plant oil. At the end of the use, it is switched back
to diesel for a minute or so to clear the fuel system of vegetable
oil. We have developed a small in-line electric heater that is
easily shipped anywhere, called the Vegtherm. We have full kits,
many options, valves, heated filters, tank heaters, oil presses
etc. all developed and being used in hundreds of engines/applications
every day, with both new and used cooking oils, and have done
this for 5 years now, and these are all perfect for coconut and
palm, etc. (and coconut is a very good fuel for this - one of
the best in the world!)
As our business grows here in Canada and the USA, we are seeking to
develop more international contacts and business, and I welcome
people to visit our web site, and to contact me with any questions.
We are available for consulting work, installation, training,
CDM/Kyoto carbon credit project discussions, etc. and are very
committed to seeing this idea take its place in the renewable
energy world.
We
may try to organize a plant oil fuels colloquium at the OUR Ecovillage
on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, in 2006. Anyone
interested in this topic or that idea can contact me directly
at edwardbeggs@plantdrive.com
www.plantdrive.com
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