Crackers?

Biofuels, don't you just love the wealth of expertise that flaunts itself as often as possible on the telly?

So we decided we had better have a bash at making some.

What better place to start than with the cohune nuts that are abundantly strewn all over the local jungle? The things are so oil-rich the Mayans reputedly used to make a hole in the nut shell and use them like candles.

The 'experts' tell us the process is simple:
Collect the nuts,
Crack the nuts,
Remove the kernel from the shell,
Crush the kernels,
Collect the oil,
Break the shells down and use as a mulch,
Convert the oil to biodiesel.
Use the nut kernel residue to feed livestock.

So as all thirsters-after-knowledge do, we went on the web to find out what machinery is around the place to do all that (except the feed-to-livestock bit).

Plenty to convert from oil to biodiesel, plenty to crush the nut kernels and produce the oil, absolutely zilch to deal with the nut casings. So we could do everything except start at the beginning after collecting the nuts. Shame, really, but nil desperandum.

So we looked again and all over India there seemed to be firms offering equipment of various sorts able to sustain small-village-level techniques and volumes. So we asked them. No replies. So we asked the Indian Trade Office. No replies.

In a world with no shortages of experts, actually doing something surely shouldn't be such an impossibility, one might think. Pity our workshop facilities don't (yet) run to messing about with hydraulic crushers. Meantime, if there are any practical geniuses out there???