Biofuels in the South Pacific: A New Use for Coconuts
In the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, a new and viable fuel is being used to supplement the expensive diesel fuel that has traditionally fueled the island vehicles. Coconut, a natural resource that the islands have in profusion is being revived as source of fuel for generators, vehicles and watercraft. The new fuel is revitalizing the coconut plantations, eliminating low paying copra production jobs and creating high paying biofuel production jobs in their place.
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Coconut has been traditionally made into copra, a product made by the manual removal of the flesh of the nut and processing of the husk. This is a very difficult stoop-labor job and has never been much of a cash crop for the Islanders. The Islanders suffer from lack of the benefits of economies of scale and only contribute roughly 10% of the world’s supply of copra. This article assures us that if the Pacific Islanders stopped making copra tomorrow, the world markets would not know the difference.
Source tiny green bubble
