Pacific Biodiesel gets federal funding to develop model for Hawaii agriculture-based biofuel

In Hawaii, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies announced the company has expanded its operations to Kauai as part of a multi-year agreement signed last year with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) to demonstrate a renewable biofuel produced in Hawaii from multiple locally grown oilseed cover crops. 

The project will produce a prototype solution for renewable biofuel as well as the agricultural model to produce the fuel in Hawaii. The effort will further validate the transition to this drop-in fuel for military application, including power generation installations, the firm said.

Building upon Pacific Biodiesel’s previous Hawaii Military Biofuel Crop Project research in 2011 to 2015, this project will demonstrate farming at a larger scale of 1,000 acres or more and the production model will support Hawaii’s food security, energy security and supply chain resiliency. 

This project is based on Kauai, where Pacific Biodiesel last year began supplying its biodiesel to KIUC as a source of renewable energy supporting the Kauai utility’s accelerated pathway to 100% renewable electricity production by 2033.

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