An Experiment in Fiji
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
Coconut Oil To Run
Engines
GREAT interest has been taken in Aus tralia in the following newspaper report from Suva, dated August 23: “A successful experiment was carried out to-day in running diesel engines on stock coconut oil. An excavator and a stone crusher were both driven satis factorily under full load, and the Gov ernment intends to make a long running test to determine the effect of the fuel on the engine and the consumption.”
The fact that coconut oil can be used as a fuel for internal explosion engines was demonstrated in the Philippines dur ing the denression, about 1932; and, in later years, as the Diesel principle has been increasingly applied to internal ex plosion engines, it has been shown that almost anything of an oily or greasy sub stance could be used as Diesel fuel.
“Give me a cljance to work up to it, and I could run a Diesel on dripping”, said one Sydney expert.
Coconut oil, brought to the proper character, or degree of consistency, should be an admirable fuel for Diesel engines. It becomes largely a matter of cost, however.
The keen interest m the Suva experi ment is due, not only to the urgent need for finding new uses for coconut oil, but
also to the fact that, in all British countries, the need for conserving foreign exchange has brought about a severe rationing of motor fuels and a search for local substitutes. The two things have come together.
There is need for very expert investi gation, however. What treatment of coconut oil is needed, in order to make it suitable for Diesel engines? If it can be made suitable for use in this way, what quantities would have to be used, to make its handling as a motor fuel economical? What quantities are avail able?
Most important of all, would it be practicable to grow coconuts, make copra, express the oil, treat the oil, and trans port the oil to Diesel consumers, and sell it at a price to compete with the product of the international oil companies, with their world-wide systems of cheap dis tribution?
Dr. E. P. Ellison, Chief Medical Officer in the Cook Group, visited the Northern Cook Islands and Palmerston Island in July and August on board the schooner “Tiare Taporo”.