Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

allears wrote: post #2

Yeah, but until it matches kerosene in price and availability (how many coconuts per aeronautical mile?) it won't actually be an alternative

Just intuitively I doubt there's nearly enough coconut oil produced to replace any meaningful amount of jet fuel. I scanned the article and didn't see this addressed, but may have missed it.

Various other bio-fuel and synthesized replacements for petroleum-based jet fuel have been tried and are in development. The aviation industry is very slow to approve and adopt changes.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#6

Post by clickety_clack » Sun, Aug 23, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

Do coconuts grow particularly efficiently?

Edit: The US created biofuel subsidies a few years ago and it’s led to poor use of land with questionable climate impact. It’s effectively become a wealth transfer to support poor rural American communities, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but there’re probably more effective ways to do that intentionally.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#7

Post by yread » Sun, Aug 23, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

How is the viscosity at -60?

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#8

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC » Sun, Aug 23, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

Aviation uses around a million metric tons of jet fuel per day.

If you thought habitat destruction from palm oil was bad, that would be nothing compared to coconut oil making up any significant fraction of jet fuel.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#9

Post by mdp2021 » Sun, Aug 23, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

clickety_clack wrote: post #6

Do coconuts grow particularly efficiently? Edit: The US created biofuel subsidies a few years ago and it’s led to poor use of land with questionable climate impact. It’s effectively become a wealth transfer to support poor rural American communities, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but there’re probably more effective ways to do that intentionally.

They already grow, they are already harvested, and this process uses discarded parts of the harvest. It is putting in use what we already had but had no use for.

Edit: the article speaks about possibilities that open. It also clearly notices that the a number of problems are unsolved. The infographic is direct: https://studyfinds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Coconut-Bi...

Note that if some product available in limited amount, say "coconut oil", becomes an asset to improve any context, say "aviation", it does not follow that one should maximize that amount psychotically without a cost-risk-benefit. You can just exploit the available yield through planning.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#10

Post by wronex » Sun, Aug 23, 2026, 4:39 PM UTC

I think this is awesome. Anything we can do to get away from burning fossil fuel is a win in my book. I don’t know about this particular effort, but it seems to me that aviation could really need some big wins in this direction. Last I looked we still run smaller planes on leaded fuel. Crazy.