[Stoves] Energy from whole coconuts

[AJH]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:56:49 +1200, Ian Vincent wrote:

>I live in a large coconut plantation area on Taveuni Island, Fiji and we 
>have a 'huge' surplus of unharvested waste coconuts. I can get them for 
>free if I collect them myself, or can buy them @ US$5 per  100.
>
>Strikes me that these whole nuts contain a large amount of energy, both as 
>oil and as wood material. They also contain water of course.

Hi Ian 
I'm amazed that such a resource could be seen as waste. I quite like
to drink "coconut milk" but I'm sure that it can be ferment to yield
alcohol. The copra was a prized resource, the ODA from UK prototyped a
copra dryer that ran off the pyrolysis offgas from a charcoal retort
loaded with coconut shells. With the mention of oil as well there
simply seem too many possibilities to want to just burn them.

AJH