Video Extras 4: To the Lighthouse
To the lighthouse diaries
Far from shy
Can you really get enough oil from a coconut to power a lighthouse? See the incredible properties of vegetable oils.
Follow Ellen in this exclusive video extra as she prepares coconut oil to light the lighthouse, as part of the fifth BBC/OU TV series Rough Science, based in Zanzibar
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Ellen: Okay, so I'm collecting coconut because seeds have a lot of oil and if we're going to make this lighthouse really, really bright, and last all night long, we're going to need a lot of oil. And this is really easy to get to. Basically we hack through the husk. The nut's in the centre. And because something like a coconut, it can float all the way across the ocean and then germinate, that's a pretty big plant. It needs a lot of energy for the seed to germinate and start to grow. So it should have so much oil in here, and all we've got to do is collect, I don't know, fifty, a hundred, process it, and we'll be fine.
[BACKGROUND SOUNDS]
Kate: Oh, you've got a coconut mountain. Do you want me to take over again? Or are you alright?
Ellen: This is it.
Kate: Ohhh!
Ellen: This is the last one. We're done!
Kate: That's forty cocoanuts or so?
Ellen: I think we did sixty or eighty yeah.
Kate: Ohhh. [LAUGHS] So what's the next stage?
Ellen: Um, I think we should eat it all! No - I've got to rinse it.
Kate: Mmm-huh.
Ellen: And then squeeze it out really, really well.
Kate: Yeah.
Ellen: And boil off that liquid.
Kate: Yeah.
Ellen: And so, overnight the oil will float to the top. The water will be on the bottom, we'll have our coconut oil.
Kate: By tomorrow morning?
Ellen: Yeah, I still have a lot to do but it'll be okay. This is the hard part.
Kate: Okay.
Ellen: Easy part's left.
Kate: I'll leave you in peace. If you want help with squeezing later...
Ellen: Thank you ma'am!
Kate: ... give us a shout.
Ellen: So here's the result of what I squeezed, boiled and let sit overnight. The water is at the bottom, and the coconut residue in the oil is at the top, so the challenge is to separate the coconut residue from the oil.
Ellen: And how that's done - you carefully scoop out the coconut residue which is mixed with the oil and then basically fry it up.
Ellen: Now what happens after you fry it for about an hour, you end up with pure coconut oil on the top and...
Ellen: fried coconut residue.
Ellen: We've got our oil for our candles!
Content last updated: 01/03/2005
