By PETER SUR
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
SHIPMAN BUSINESS PARK — The recent history of biofuel development on the Big Island has been a discouraging one. A handful of startups were announced with great fanfare in recent years, but were sunk by the global credit crunch, falling oil prices and community opposition.
Yet despite the odds, one company has survived and is on track to serve the island with up to 5.5 million gallons of biodiesel per year, or 16,000 gallons a day. More than a year and a half after groundbreaking, Big Island Biodiesel’s $12 million plant, located in the Shipman Business Park, is on track to start collecting used cooking oil and vegetable oils, and selling refined biodiesel, in late July.
When the facility is up and running, company trucks will collect used cooking oil from restaurants around town, and it will be shipped in from Oahu and Maui. The oil will be delivered to the plant, processed, purified and sold at a competitive price to petroleum distributors around the island.
That’s the basic idea, but there’s more. Outside her temporary office on the grounds of the plant, Jenna Long, fuel sales manager for Pacific Biodiesel, holds up a 32-ounce Gatorade bottle partly filled with yellow oil. This oil comes from Hawaii Pure Plant Oils, a nearby 200-acre jatropha farm owned by James Twigg-Smith. Big Island Biodiesel is hoping that the existence of the plant will spur farmers to plant fuel more fuel oil crops and jump-start the island’s agricultural economy. Long said research is still ongoing to determine the best fuel crop.
Big Island Biodiesel is affiliated with Pacific Biodiesel, which has built a dozen plants since 1997, mostly on the U.S. mainland. Pacific Biodiesel will serve as the developer and operator, and provide the technology for the plant, it is a separate company from Big Island Biodiesel.
During a tour of the plant on Wednesday, Long walked around the 30-foot tall holding tanks, pointing out the loading dock, the slabs where future tanks and a 70-foot distillation tower will go, and described how the plant will operate. It can make 8,000 gallons per batch, two batches per day, and will someday be run around the clock. Engineers inside the building next door will be able to operate the plant from a control room and power the entire facility with an on-site diesel generator.
At some point, Long said, people will be able to drop off their used cooking oil at one part of the plant and buy refined biodiesel at another part. Commercial distributors usually make a blend of 20 percent biodiesel, 80 percent regular diesel, but Big Island Biodiesel will also make 100 percent biodiesel available for sale.
The process of making biodiesel is relatively easy; the trick is in removing the impurities so that the remaining fuel can be burned in a diesel engine. Natural oils react with alcohol — methanol in this case — to create diesel.
Glycerin is created as a byproduct, and it can be made into soaps or other chemical byproducts.
Methanol is an expensive compound, but Long said that Big Island Biodiesel plans to recapture some of it in the distillation process for reuse. She said that would save enough money that it makes economic sense to ship used cooking oil from Oahu and Maui to the Keaau facility.
“We’re going to be able to make real high-quality biodiesel,” Long said.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in November 2010, with hopes that the plant could be up and running within a year. But that timeline turned out to be too optimistic.
The plant is being built with a $5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A grand opening celebration is scheduled for July 2, followed by final testing before the start of operations.
Consumers and businesses in Hawaii County spend nearly $5 million every month for 1.5 million gallons of diesel oil, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Long isn’t aware of any other business on the Big Island that is as close to manufacturing local biodiesel, at least “not commercially.”
About 20 people are being hired to run the plant full-time. Pacific Biodiesel Vice President Kelly King said that only a facilities manager has been hired so far, and the company is still going through résumés.
“This will really change the way we make biodiesel in Hawaii,” Long said.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.