Coconut Oil Replacing Diesel

Oil-based fuels can be costly.

And in a few years, the production could become insufficient.

That's why on the island of Bougainville (the largest on the Solomon archipelago, Papua New Guinea), the locals have chosen a more effective solution for fueling cars and generators: coconut oil.

Currently, there are a lot of mini-refineries on the island producing the plant oil that replaces diesel. The use of cocos-based fuel is generalized on the island, and this alternative fuel source has triggered interest including from the outside world, like Europe and Iran.

Previously, the people of Bougainville depended on costly imported petroleum-based fuel.

Fuel shortages have often determined many local businesses to stop. Besides being much cheaper, the new energy is a far more sustainable alternative, as this island is a heaven of coconut palm plantations and many locals refine coconut oil in backyard refineries. "They sometimes refer to me as the Mad German because how can you do that to your car... filling it with some coconut juice that you normally fry your fish in. The coconut tree is a beautiful tree. Doesn't it sound good if you really run your car on something which falls off a tree and that's the good thing about it. You run your car and it smells nice and it's environmentally friendly and that's the main thing", said Matthias Horn, a German migrant and an engineer who operates a refinery on the island.

Coconut oil is also employed for cooking and making cosmetics like soap, for example. This is not the first time coconut oil comes to help the locals. In the '90s, a bloody civil war led to the independence of the island from Papua New Guinea and thousands of people were killed. Low diesel supplies pushed locals to seek an alternative which they found in the coconut. Now, in times of peace, a new sweet-smelling industry has boosted.