Coconut plantation

The tropical oil crops, coconut and palm, are the most efficient oil-producing crops, with coconut plantations yielding up to 2 tonnes per hectare of oil and the best performing palm plantations from 5-6 tonnes per hectare. By comparison, oil yields of temperate oil crops are typically of the order of 1-2 tonnes per hectare for the best oil-yielding crops (oilseed rape and sunflower). Clearly, Table 2.1 represents only a small fraction of oil-bearing plant species. Many other seed, fruit and nut oils are extracted for food use, however unless they contain fatty acid profiles or fatty acid derivatives of specific industrial interest, total oil-yield, fatty acid yield and cost of the final oil product tends to limit their use in industrial applications on all but a small or localised scale. 

Unlike other vegetable oils, oils from palm and coconut trees are very high in saturated fats. Considerable evidence currently suggests that diets high in saturated fats lead to a greater risk of heart disease. For this reason, the demand for coconut and palm oils has decreased considerably in recent years, and many coconut plantations previously farmed in the South Pacific are no longer in commercial operation. 

Soil, water, and foliar analyses in coconut plantations are conducted to determine the type of fertihzer and micronutrients required by the palm. Long-term studies show that the apphcation of potassium or sodium chlorides in optimum doses as supplements to the standard nutrients for inland farms increases yields in nuts per tree and copra per nut (7, 8). 

The crude oil production of the world is about 4 billion t annually, half of which is used in transportation. Aviation alone requires 340 billion 1 of jet fuel per year, ff the entire amoimt is to be replaced by bioftrel, a huge land area must be converted into a coconut plantation—its size would be about the combined area of France, Spain and Germany, or the largest US state of Alaska... 

Oils and fats have been important throughout human history not only for food, but also as lubricants, polishes, ointments, and fuel. The reaction of oils and fats with alkali (saponification) produces soap (salts of fatty acids) and glycerin. This chemical process was known to the Romans and continues to be of significant commercial importance. Today, tens of thousands of tons of soap are produced annually from tallow and plant oils. Tallow is a by-product of the meat industry, while the principal plant oils are dependent on extensive plantations—palm and palm kernel oils from Indonesia, Malaysia, and India, and coconut oil from the Philippines and Brazil. Twentieth-century chemists designed more effective synthetic, crude-oil-based surface-active agents (surfactants, e.g., sodium linearalkylbenzene-sulfonate or LAS) for fabric, household, and industrial cleaning applications, and specialty surfactants to meet the needs of consumer products industry such as milder skin and hair cleansers. 

B Ride the Coska Rican Jungle Train along the steamy Caribbean shoreline. Pass over rivers and along curtains of coconut palms, and visit a working banana plantation. B Rafting the Markka Brae River on a 30-foot raft is the way to go. Groves of bamboo and layers of ferns line the riverbank outside of Ocho Rios, Jamaica. 

The kernel oil is obtained by expelling, usually followed by solvent extraction. The oil superficially resembles coconut oil in chemical and physical properties. The free fatty acid of the crude oil varies from 0.5 to 10%, plantation oils normally having the lowest values. The refined oil keeps well but has a tendency to form soapy rancid off-flavours under conditions in which microbial or lipolytic activity has not been controlled. 

The coconut palm grows mainly on the sea shore or close to it in most tropical and subtropical areas within about 20° of the equator. It probably originated in the Pacific/Indian ocean region. It is widely cultivated by smallholders and in plantations for local consumption. In terms of world trade, the Philippines are by far the largest exporters. 

Tree plantation technology has the potential for the development in the field of pulp wood and biomass. It also involves development of unutilized forest lands. Tree plantation is a well-developed technology resulting in the production of rubber, coconut, tea, lumber, and paper pulp [64, 65]. 

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is believed to be indigenous to West Africa. More than 80% of the world s palm oil comes from Southeast Asia, mainly Malaysia (50%) and Indonesia. Another species, such as American oil palm (Elaeis oleifera), are also cultivated for vegetable oil. One hectare of oil palm plantation produces 4.51 of oil per year which is three times the yield of coconut and more than 10 times that of soybean. Oil palms accumulate 90% of their oil in the mesocarp of fruits (pahn oil contains mostly palmitic and oleic acid, together 80% 10% LA), and the remaining comes from seed kernels (they contain >60% of medium-chain FAs, mainly, lauric acid). Pahn oil is mostly used in food products, as well as an oleochemical feedstock and a feedstock for biodiesel production. Pahn kernel oil is a most important feedstock used in the production of detergents and other applications of medium-chain FAs. 

---