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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows how the people of Bougainville, an island to the east of Papua New Guinea, produce diesel oil from coconuts. Over scenes of people collecting coconuts from trees, de-husking the nut, separating the flesh from the shell, fermenting it in old refrigerators and extracting the oil, a narrator describes the process of turning coconuts into diesel fuel. The final scene shows two men attaching a container of oil to a truck engine, push-starting the truck and driving it away. The voice-over is accompanied by a choir of women singing a Melanesian song.

Educational value points

• The clip shows how alternative fuel can be produced from nut or vegetable oils. An alternative fuel is one made from a renewable energy source rather than from a non-renewable fossil source such as petroleum, coal or natural gas. Biofuels are alternative fuels derived from renewable biological resources. Coconut oil is a biofuel called biodiesel. Biodiesel can also be made from canola, soybean, rape seed and other oils. Bioalcohol, such as ethanol from agricultural sources, is also a biofuel.

• The use of coconut fuel has a longer history than the clip would suggest. During the Second World War, when diesel was in short supply, the military on both sides in the Pacific region used coconut oil to run diesel engines. Since then many experiments have revealed the potential of this inexpensive fuel source, particularly in tropical countries where the higher ambient temperature maintains the oil in its liquid state. In 2004 the Philippines Government adopted coconut fuel in government vehicles.

• The clip refers to the blockade of the Panguna Copper Mine by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), part of a nine-year separatist guerrilla war. BRA acts of arson and sabotage resulted in the closure of the Panguna Copper Mine in 1989, and when BRA leaders proclaimed the independence of Bougainville from PNG, fighting between the two sides escalated. PNG forces blockaded the island from 1990 and a desperate PNG Prime Minister, Julius Chan, even attempted to commission Sandline, a group of mercenaries from Africa, to put down the separatists, a move that provoked his army to mutiny. A peace agreement was signed in 1998 and Bougainville’s 160,000 inhabitants have been promised a vote on independence in 2014.

• In the 1980s Arawa was the residential base for Bougainville Copper. Its Panguna mine was the world’s biggest and accounted for 40 per cent of PNG’s exports. Before it closed, Bougainville was the country’s most developed province, and on a per capita basis the people were the richest. They had modern supermarkets, sporting facilities, an international-standard school and excellent medical services. During the nine-year separatist conflict, 15,000-20,000 Indigenous people died and the area was left with a closed mine, a despoiled landscape and the loss of the modern facilities and services.

• Studies comparing biofuels show that biodiesels require fewer engine modifications than bioethanol. Biodiesels also have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of alternative fuels for heavy vehicles (taking into account net energy gain and life-cycle environmental impact). Biodiesel releases 93 per cent more energy than is required to produce it, compared to bioethanol’s 25 per cent net yield. Biodiesel also releases fewer air pollutants than bioethanol.

• The advantages of coconut oil as a diesel substitute can clearly be seen; however, although the oil runs more smoothly than conventional diesel and is a sustainable fuel, it solidifies at 25 degrees Celsius. Consequently, a dual-tank system that injects a petroleum diesel into the engine for the first and the final 15 minutes of running time is necessary. About 200 coconuts are required to produce 5 litres of fuel.

• Humans’ capacity for ingenious responses in the face of adversity is demonstrated in the clip. During the blockade, no supplies entered the island and trade with the outside world ceased. The former mine became a source of spare parts that were used to fashion an electricity supply and maintain basic communication with the outside world. Coconut fuel ran generators and fuelled vehicles. Bush medicine was revived to provide basic health care and local timbers and vines were used to build houses, schools and clinics.

• The diesel engine is named after Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913), who died before his vision of vegetable oil powered engines could be realised. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, he demonstrated the first engine to run on peanut oil. His death coincided with the growth of the petroleum industry, which developed 'diesel-fuel’ as a cheap petroleum by-product rather than pursuing the vegetable oil alternative.

A man climbs a coconut tree, tossing coconuts down. People, mostly women, husk and scrape the coconuts. The oil is boiled. Two men attach a container of oil to a truck engine, push-starting the truck and drive it away. The voice-over is accompanied by a choir of women singing a Melanesian song.

Narrator Of the most ingenious developments of the Makena Sabi phenomenon was the use of the coconut palm. The trunk is always been used in building for floors, the fronds in roofing. But during the blockade the coconut itself acquired a most fascinating new use. Coconuts were collected, husked and scraped. The extract was squeezed and the oil allowed to ferment in upturned refrigerators discarded at the beginning of the crisis. The oil was boiled. Apart from its common uses in cooking and for hair and skin care, the Bougainvilleans now used it as an alternative to diesel. The plastic container holding the oil sat inside the cabin. A tube took the oil directly to the engine. A couple of drops of alcohol were added before the truck was kick-started, car batteries having expired years before. It took 200 coconuts to produce just five litres of oil.