N. Zealand Students See Coconut Oil As Fuel

Oct 7, 10:21 AM (ET)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - It might sound nuts, but two engineering students in New Zealand are claiming coconut oil can be used as an alternative to diesel, providing a possible answer to rising fuel cost woes.

Samoan Dominic Schwalger and Penaia Rogoiumari from Fiji, both students at Auckland University in northern New Zealand, demonstrated Friday how a diesel engine can run on a blend of diesel and coconut oil, or on pure coconut oil alone.

"What we have shown is that without any modification to either the pure oil or the engine you can use it as an alternative fuel," they said in a statement released by the university.

The budding engineers said they have also analyzed engine performance and exhaust emissions as part of their research.

Their findings could help reduce fuel prices, especially in southern Asia and the Pacific Islands where coconuts are cheaply grown and plentiful.

Schwalger said producing coconut oil for use in standard diesel engines is a simple process, unlike some bio-diesels which require complex equipment and chemical reactions.

"The combination of a ready supply of coconuts, rising fuel prices and ease of manufacture makes this a real option for villagers who need to run equipment like generators or boat engines," Rogoiumari said.

Coconut oil is produced by pressing the dried white flesh of the coconut, Schwalger said.

"At that point, it is ready for use and is utilized already in various ways such as cooking oil and suntan lotions," he said, adding that experiments involving coconut oil as a fuel substitute have been carried out in Asia and the Pacific Islands in the past two years.