14 DAY TRIAL // Western world is struggling to find new fuels that would free them from an oil-and-gas based economy which renders them vulnerable to the blackmail of some oil-and-gas rich countries, like many in Middle East, Russia or Venezuela, where human rights do not mean much.
Not to mention the funds terrorism gets from oil trade...
Nuclear energy is an option, but the wastes contaminate the environment for millennia.
Wind and sun energy are not enough.
By now, hydrogen fuel seems a remote option.
But scientists are still looking for new regenerative and sustainable fuel sources.
On the Ouvea Island (New Caledonia), coconut oil is used for generating power.
After 18 years of research, French engineer Alain Liennard made an engine that functions on coconut oil.
The engine acts like a generator which feeds a desalting center that furnishes drinking water for the 235 families on the island.
The system generates 165 kilowatts, emulating with Diesel engines about power and fuel consume.
In an Indian village from Gujarat (India), cattle were used for generating power.
A research team found this solution: four beasts wheel a pivot connected to a gear box which actions upon a small generator.
The generator is bound to several batteries which feed a water pump and a mill.
The whole cost of this energy is about 10 cents, compared to one dollar for wind mill obtained energy or 24 dollars the energy obtained by solar shields.
As cattle are needed three months annually at the field work, the inventors are looking for an effective way to store energy which could be used while the cattle are missing.
In the Pacific area and South America, candlenut tree (Aleurites moluccana) is grown. The 15-25 m (45-80 feet) tall trees produce 30-80 kg of round nuts with a 4-6 cm diameter. The seed inside has a very hard seed coat and a high oil content (15-20%).
The nuts are used in Malaysian-Indonesian cuisine and the oil used (like castor oil) as a hair stimulant or additive to hair treatment systems.
But in Hawaii, the nuts are not only eaten but burned to provide light.
A nut burns with a bright and constant flame, without abundant smoke or spreading any scent. They were used as a measure of time.
The nuts were strung in a row on a palm leaf midrib and one end lit.
One could then instruct someone to return home before the second nut burned out.
In Brazil grow the 30 m tall copaiba trees (Copaifera langsdorfi and other related species), related to Acacia.
The tree can live over 100 years and from the trunk of copaiba trees is extracted copaiba, a thick, transparent golden to dark brown liquid is used as prime matter in perfume industry and as balsam, for making varnishes and lacquers.(photo)
10-20 liters of copaiba pour from an orifice made in the trunk for two hours.
After that, the hole is tapped and the tree can be exploited again after 6 months.
(Thus, a sole tree will produce about 40 liters of copaiba annually).
Copaiba is the tree's resin and contains essential oil.
The hydrocarbons in copaiba are terpenes, polymers in this case of the plants form iosoprene, a "five-carbon-atom hydrocarbon molecule, that's why in these terpenes, the carbon atoms always are multiples of five. At high temperatures, terpenes break down their molecules into methanol (CH3OH) and other simple compounds useful for fuel and as raw materials in the chemical industry."
Diesel engines function very well with fuel obtained from copaiba.
As of 1990, it provided 20 % of all of Brazil's oil exports.
Because the copaiba production is of 12,000 liters per ha, it is particularly interesting as a source of biodiesel.
Initially, copaiba was employed for its medical properties against stomach cancer and ulcers and has an antifungal activity.