PETROLEUM NUT TREE by Dr. Michael Bengwayam

I have discovered a tree that makes in five to six years what millions of years takes to create – that is to make petroleum.

Photo courtesy of Art Tibaldo

My discovery is not just exciting but fascinating becuase by planting and using the tree, people will not be dependent on fossil fuel and can help conserve forests and reduce earth warming.

The tree name:  PETROLEUM NUT

Scientific name: Pittosporum resineferum

Also Known as:               

In the Philippine Cordilleras petroleum nut is locally known as apisang, abkel, abkol and da-il, is found among other trees like oak and other mossy forest species.

Found Places:               

Petroleum Nut Tree is a tree that grows in the Northern part of the Philippines and Malaysia, particularly in the wilderness surrounding the Mayon Volcano and in the Cordillera of the Philippines and Mount Kinabalu of Sabah, Malaysia.

Planting:               

Grows well together with pine trees.

The tree is difficult to plant because the seeds are covered by gum

Carbon Rating:   

54 (much higher than Jatropha curcas which has only 41)

The petroleum tree is rich in:

► heptane (n-Heptane is the straight-chain alkane with the chemical formula H₃C(CH₂)₅CH₃ or C₇H₁₆.)

► myrcene (Myrcene, or β-myrcene, is an olefinic natural organic compound. It is classified as a hydrocarbon, more precisely as a monoterpene.)

► dihydropetrpene

► e-pinene

... which are gasoline substances. 

The tree bears fruits in five years time. One tree can yield an average 250 to 300 kg. It takes 15 kg of fresh fruits to produce 1 liter of highly flammable oil.

The Oil from Petroleum tree:

The oil is extracted through cold press, and distillation. 

The oil comes from the fruit, not the seed.

► The oil can totally replace liquified petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking, lighting, heating and drying.

► Reduce CO2 emissions

We have tested it as a blend with fossil fuel and it can replace fossil fuel to as high as 20 per cent to run gasoline engines.

The Fruit:

► Its fruit is also highly suitable for use in producing biofuel. 

► If you extract the fruit you will get oil for cooking and lighting torches

This use has been encouraged by the Philippines Department of Agrarian Reform and the Philippine Coconut Authority.

Importance of the Petroleum Tree:

• The tree is important because it is a sustainable source of biofuel. Also, it saves forests. If rural people will plant it and harvest the oil, then trees will no longer be cut for fuelwood.

• The tree is also a very good carbon sink because the leaves are broad, thick and have high tannin and lignin content, thus it helps reduce global warming. It absorsb more carbon than other tree species.

MICHAEL BENGWAYAN

Director

Cordillera Ecological Center

1. Director, Cordillera Ecological Education, Research and Information Centre

2. Faculty, The Management School of Restorative Business

3. Environment Editor, Brunei Times

His Educational Background includes:

1. Diploma on Social Entreprneurship, Rutgers University,New Jersey, USA

2. Echoing Green Foundation Fellow

3. Ph. D. Environmental Resource Management, University College Dublin, Ireland

4. Master of Science, Rural Development, Benguet State University

5. Diploma, Science and Technology Journalism, Kalmar University, Sweden

Bengwayan has applied for a Philippine patent for the petroleum nut to protect it from what he calls bio-piracy.  He has yet to get the patent, though, because it costs too much time and money to process. 

Without a Philippine patent, Filipinos will soon lose the right to grow, process, and use the nuts for fuel Bengwayan warns. 

"What we want is for Filipinos to benefit from this first," he says, and if that means spending his own money, and spending his birthday teaching residents of Sagada town in the Mountain Province how to cultivate and use the nuts, he considers it a gift to himself, to his people, and to the earth. Using bio-fuel will lessen the use of fossil fuels and will fight deforestation too, since locals will no longer have to cut down trees for firewood.

Bengwayan is an environmental activist—he was at the forefront of the campaign to block a plan by mall developer SM to ball pine trees in its Baguio mall—a scientist, and has a doctorate in Environmental Research Management from the University College-Dublin in Ireland. 

In his own words, though, he is an earth-healer. “I like feeling the soil in my hands knowing how much it does to make the world live,” he says on his blog. 

“There is nothing that I like doing more than caring for the Earth. I love planting. I love working to see to it that soil is not wasted away by slides, erosion and mudflows  whether I plant trees or crops or anything that has roots reaching out for the soil,” he says. And that attitude is yet another secret he is trying hard to spread.

The tree is difficult to plant because the seeds are covered by gum but I have discovered how to plant it. Three years ago, I have started planting it and have raised about 50,000 trees. I have discovered how to extract the oil and I am currently using the oil for cooking and lighting.