- Originally a project of: South Point Propagation, was founded in 2004 and is a sole proprietorship owned by Ted Seaman ((808) 929-7181 Naalehu), setting up on a leased parcel of land in Pahala, Ka'u.
- Site describes the desire to research, primarily Jatropha, but also "will be looking at several different crops that have been identified as excellent biofuel sources and others that have yet to be examined closely."
- Related: The Hawaii Biodiesel Consortium (2006-2007) included Aloha Green, Kam. Schools, HARC (Mike Poteet), ... had a plan put together Sept. 2006. Contact: Bob Numbers (P.O. Box 26 Papa'aloa, 895-3041)
- As of Mar. 3 2008, Ted and Bob say that the Project (and the Consortium) is about to grow into something much bigger, called Hawaii Biocrude, perhaps announced publicly by May 2008 - "stay tuned".
- There is not yet any connection between them and HCEOC, they are pursuing different jatropha strategies.
- 2009-01-13: New venture Fuel Alternatives Hawaii announced its intention to plant oil-bearing trees on 80,000 acres statewide, including 20,000 to 30,000 acres on the Big Island. Bob Numbers is involved. Is this the same entity as "Hawaii Biocrude"?
- As of October 2007, this organization "has been working with Jatropha for past 18 months on a 20-acre, state-owned farm in Hilo." - $677k federal grants and $240k state grants in 2007-2008?
- "We have committed to producing 2,400,000 seedlings in three years' time... Biogenetic engineer has been hired to help with the Hilo operation. "
- Aloha Green LLC plans to buy the seedlings to produce biodiesel (growing them around Onomea?)
- Director George Yokoyama says: Jatropha project is headed by Bob Burkey
- Bob Burkey was with the Hawaii Biotech Tissue
Culture Center: (966-9074, 16-204 Melekahiwa Place, Keaau, 96749)
- Their website talked mostly about orchids - no mention of the jatropha work there. (Besides orchids, they mention vireya, tea, bamboo, and vanilla)
- Bob Burkey's own local farm was called Kamuela Greenhouse/Specialty Orchids (address on White Road, south)
- November 19, 2008:
Nonprofit tackles renewable energy | Island EOC to start up projects, train
workers
- U.S. Department of Human Services has given the HCEOC a $686,000 grant
- "Will soon begin hiring 38 full-time low-income employees to work in the island's emerging renewable energy field."
- Hawaii Community College will offer renewable energy courses starting spring 2009, Yokoyama said. Successful students will then work building solar thermal/biomass hybrid generators, he said. "Anything that will burn."
- 2008.01.23: A bill in the State House of Representatives, HB3442, to grant HCEOC $500k or so for: "renewable energy project ..establish an assembly plant to fabricate components to build rechargeable, battery-powered automobiles, or vehicles operated without an internal combustion engine, gasoline tank, or radiator that will run silently at a speed of sixty miles per hour, and will require a battery replacement only once every one hundred and twenty miles. The project shall also assemble three-kilowatt-hour electric power storage batteries that will incorporate the rechargeable battery and solar thermal energy that will simultaneously provide power and hot water for household use."
- What did HCEOC actually do?
- In 2008, engineer Stephen Finch, in Laupahoehoe, has an ongoing project (Ethanol or Biofuels) "to develop an environmentally friendly Ethanol facility."
- Ken Stokes reports: "His pilot scale ethanol/butanol extraction plant is small, yet it can run with sugar cane, sweet sorghum, food-grade sorghum, switchgrass, and other types of carbohydrates. Finch’s pilot plant is a high tech method of membrane technology, and does not require the use of distillation or dryers. So, he can run it “off grid” due to the reduction in energy requirements. This means you can produce your fuel quicker and at a much lower cost. Finch can also separate the ethanol or butanol with oil and sulphur. Oh, and, Finch knows fuels, having been involved with ethanol, DME and butanol for 17 years and having degrees in Food Process Technology."
- Stephen P. Finch: Office: 962-6213 Mobile: 854-5908, stephen@vafaf.com, 36-2270 Mamalahoa Hwy. Laupahoehoe
- March 2008: article: "Finch said construction is almost complete on a pilot-scale ethanol plant, which will produce approximately 100 gallons of ethanol every 1.5 days"
- As of January 2011, no updates.
- Announced on Feb. 29 2008, formed by Kent Smith, Hilton Unemori and Guy Gilliland (CEO), who were co-developers of wind farms on Maui and Kauai. No website yet.
- "A 30 MW biomass combustion power plant, which means it'll burn wood to create energy. [...] has asked the state for more than 60 acres near Ookala"
- The 13,000 acres of mature trees came up for lease at the end of 2007, and Smith and Unemori were the winning bidders. The land is owned by Kamehameha Schools. They expect to be in operation by the third quarter of 2010.
- "Leaves are left behind to help restore the soil."
- No website, and no news since late 2008. Perhaps the project is on hold.
- Seeks an approval in principle for the lease of up to 37,263.87 acres of land for 50 years. Eucalyptus trees and grasses would be the source of fuel, through a patented and complex "Carbo-V" process, heated to more than 1400 degrees C and turned into a gas before being processed further into SunDiesel.
- Formed by a guy called Michael Saalfeld, of Choren Industries (Europe) who lives in Waimea.
- 2009-01-13: Says "we will not be pursuing any state lands" and "going back to the drawing board"
- "A 24-megawatt power station that converts locally grown sustainable biomass into electricity. The former coal-burning power plant at Pepe'ekeo is being retrofitted with modern “green” technology to produce electricity from locally grown crops and surplus green waste that would otherwise go unused or into landfills."
- Was co-owned by Ethanol Research Hawaii (Oahu) and MMA Renewable Ventures (San Francisco), president is Richard McQuain
- The name means "to come out of the earth"
- Gary Fa'agau, president of the Orchards of Pepeekeo Owners Association and an energy consultant, points out that the old power plant, that Hu Honua is planning to use, is only 20% efficient, while "there is newer biomass technology available that is 70% efficient." He wrote to provide references: "By utilizing the emerging technologies of gasification combined cycle, this efficiency can be increased to levels 70% and above". To get that kind of efficiency, Hu Honua would have to install a new gasifier power plant. Presumably they lack the capital to do that.
- Very little news in 2009. As of 2010, a few articles have appeared about some forward motion. The most optimistic estimate has it operational in mid-2012.
- Facility is planned for Kea'au. According to February 2010 article Biofuel expanding to the Big Island, "a little more than a year from now [..] they hope to have the $10 million plant producing up to 8,000 gallons of biofuel a day."
- 2010-02-11 - Video: New biodiesel plant coming to Keaau
- Plan is to use used grease and vegetable oil, and then shift to biofuel crops, maybe sunflowers or jatropha, unknown. May come from HIPPO.
- 2010-11-19:
Drive toward energy independence
- "Within a year's time, Big Island truckers will be able to run their diesel engines with a sustainable, locally produced fuel made from used cooking oil."
- 2010-11-23: "..start work on 2.6Mgy biodiesel plant
following a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Kea`au site. According to
Biofuels Digest the new plant
will use zero waste procesing technology with a multiple feedstock. The
plant will be able to process used cooking oil, jatropha oil, sunflower
oil, oils from algae and fish oil and animal fats into biodiesel."
- VIDEO: Big Island Biodiesel breaks ground
- Father-and-son partners Christian and James Twigg-Smith are planting jatropha on 250 acres, plan to go to 1000 acres. Pacific Biodiesel intends to process their oil.
- Planted 2008. Summer 2009 they did a small test harvest. As of March 2010, seeking $1.3 million in financing to buy equipment for mechanical harvesting and processing.
- 2010-03-08 - Small biofuel farm bears fruit
- As of January 2011, a company called Aina Koa Pono plans to harvest biomass in Ka'u from 13,000 acres for a biofuel processing plant.
- Jan. 7 - Hawaiian Electric to Use Locally Produced Biofuel for Power Generation
- Jan. 13 - Biofuels in Ka’u - "..organic matter would be vaporized, filtered, re-vaporized and distilled into synthetic crude (aka biodiesel), kerosene (aka jet fuel) and gasoline. The byproduct of this process – char- would be put into a boiler to create electricity to run the plant. ... the questioning that ensued was decidedly skeptical in tone."
- Initial press contains claims like: "By 2015, the 13,000-acre energy farm is projected to produce about 16 percent of the Big Island's energy supply."
- Feb. 6 - AINA KOA PONO asked the state Legislature yesterday to support a 15 percent tax credit for building a refinery in Pahala
- Feb. 22: Residents meet with biofuel plant officials
- March 3: Ka'u biofuel group makes promises to offset impacts
- March 11: Aina Koa Pono biofuel: Project would add $15 to Isle residents' monthly bill
- As reported in the 'Hamakua News' newsletter in January 2011:
- Bishop estate has about 358,000 acres of land in Hawaii
- More than 80% of that land is on the big island
- Roughly 13,700 acres of that is planted in Eucalyptus grandis
- While Bishop owns the land, it's leased to an investment firm that owns the trees. The least has another 10 years on it.
- At present they figure there is about 6,000,000,000 pounds of tree mass (3 million tons)
- They are doing a sample cutting and shipping more than 3000 tons of it to AES company in Oahu that has a biomass burner (for making electricity).
- AES makes about 20% of the power on Oahu.
- If it goes well, they will take about 50,000 tons a year, which is only 1/7th of what they think they could harvest every year.
- The harvest method is to leave the stump & allow the dominant sucker to replace the tree in a twelve year cycle.
- The leaseholder would love to find other markets for the trees, but in this economy, there simply are none.