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Coconuts are a major resource of communities in the Nicobar Islands. Typical home-based extraction of oil from these nuts is highly inefficient resulting in poor quality and quantity of the extracted oil. A simple-to-use hydraulic press could help to substantially improve the extraction process, target new markets for virgin coconut oil and thereby increase incomes of local communities.
To develop a hydraulic press to double the amount of oil that can be extracted from coconuts and significantly increasing the incomes of the people of the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, just north of Sumatra.
Completed
A prototype hydraulic press was manufactured and is being utilised by private entrepreneurs. The coconut oil is fetching a good price in markets which have been established on the mainland - in Pondicherry. Funding for additional work on using waste generated from the manufacturing process for generation of bio-diesel is being explored.