Inventing New Uses for Coconut Shells (Baylor University)

The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance combined with the support of the Lemelson Foundation provides $1.5 million to student, faculty programs, and ventures annually. These programs are put to great use as they allow today's youth to participate in some of the kinds of thinking that will eventually change the world...one small invention at a time.

Today we are going to look at a project that is being led by some of the students at Baylor University. Who could have thought that so many great things could come out of a coconut? Most of us have probably never come to expect too much out of coconuts besides tropical drinks, dessert toppings, and killer sling shot ammunition.

Baylor University is poised to change such thinking with the work they have been doing with the coconut. This work includes the use of it to make binderless particle board, cocopeat (excellent water absorption characteristics for hydroponics and soils), coconut shell fiber as reinforcement polymer in automotive interiors, oil (for cooking and biofuel), and charcoal for use in furnaces.

We spoke with Dr. Walter Bradley (head of the Coconuts Project), who began his teaching career at the Colorado School of Mines before transferring to Baylor University. He was joined by one of his students, Stanton Greer.

What are some of the uses for coconuts?

As Fuel

Stanton: "Right now there is a lot of oil production, but beyond that there is not much use for the rest of the coconut. We brainstormed the conventional ways to use the coconut, one idea being to modify an existing diesel engine to run on the coconut oil without making it into biodiesel. It doesn't do a lot of good to have coconut oil available to make into biodiesel if you have to use a chemical, such as methanol, to mix with it. Instead, you can preheat the coconut to about 90 degrees for it to flow through the engine. As long as you start your engine on the diesel, then switch it over to coconut, then switch it back to the diesel towards the end to get the oil out of the lines, it will work just fine."

Charcoal

"We have also looked into making charcoal with the coconut shell," says Stanton. "It burns well and burns quick, but there is still a lot of work to be done."

"Coconut does have a high energy content," admits Dr. Bradley. "Although we think that burning things is usually the least economically advantageous way to use any material."

Cooking and Food

"The coconut has several parts," explains Dr. Bradley. "Its got the meat out of which you can get oil-meal, which can be used to make bread (it also has a decent amount of protein), and is also used for animal feed."

Activated Carbon Filter

"The coconut is very dense, which makes another good application for the coconut shell, activated carbon filters (such as in refrigerator or aquarium water filters)," says Stanton. "However the demand for this is relatively low."

Gardening/Potting Soil, and Diaper Filler Dr. Bradley: "The coconut piph dust can absorb 10 times its weight, which has many interesting applications for gardening when it is mixed with peat moss, which is rich in nutrients. One of our earlier ideas we had was diaper filler. We actually bought some diapers, took the existing stuff out and ran the same tests and found that the absorbed 50 times its weight in water, so we knew we couldn't quite compete with that."

Geotechnical Netting

Stanton: "For the coconut husk which is made of long fibers with a dense piph. It can be twined into rope which is then made into geotechnical netting to be used on hillsides to prevent erosion. You can put grass seed directly into the net, put the net on the hill, and then the grass will start growing. In a few years the nets will biodegrade until all you have left is the grass holding the hillside together. This is very common in typhoon stricken countries that have heavy rain seasons."

Synthetic Fibers for Automotive Grade Interiors

Stanton: "Our first patent pending invention is using the coconut fiber as a replacement for synthetic/polyester fibers in thermal forming composites (such as the plastics found in the interior surfaces of an automobile). We replace some of the oil based synthetic fibers normally used with coconut fibers for reinforcement composites. It costs much less than synthetics, it is more environmentally friendly (safer), and it allows the farmers who live in these rural countries to make more money for the product they grow."

"11 million coconut farmers rely exclusively on the coconuts they grow for their income and they make between $1 to $2 a day, but if we could raise that to $6 or $7 a day, it would make a tremendous difference in their available lifestyle (which means they will get to eat). We could help these people, lower the costs for the product, and create a sustainable business, so it is not all based on charity."

Dr. Bradley: "Why we are looking at coconut fiber for automotive composites is because we want big huge markets, so that if we can find something that works, it will generate literally millions of pounds of demand at a much better price point. This application has the potential to dramatically increase the demand for coconut fiber over the current polyester (synthetic) fiber. Our goal would be to at least triple the income of a lot of poor coconut farmers. They typically have between six to eight family members a piece, so the total number of people to be benefited would be about 80 million."

"The coconut replacement fiber will help the poor farmer, make the finished automotive product more green, and its mechanical properties are as good if not better than the current polyester. It is kind of a win-win for everyone. Also, coconut fiber does not burn very easily, which is one of the tests that will have to be performed in order for it to be used as an automotive application."

Triple Bottom Line

Dr. Bradley: "We have a partnership with the business school to work with some of the students who are interested in social entrepreneurship. This is a program designed for students who are interested in doing business with what is called a triple bottom line. In a normal business situation, the bottom line is simply the profit, but in triple bottom line, the bottom line is a combination of profit (a business that is not profitable, is not sustainable), people, and the planet."

That sounds like a business model that we can all live with. Thank you Dr. Bradley and Stanton for taking your time to share with us your efforts towards making the simple coconut a force in our efforts to create a self sustaining planet that is as eco-friendly to the rich business as it is the poor farmer!