BlueEarth Biofuels ready with $61 million biodiesel plant in Hawaii
Pacific Biodiesel has been active in Hawaii for years, but it's about to get some competition. But while Pacific Biodiesel is often used in cars (like the Bio-Beetle), newcomer BlueEarth is setting its sights on burning the biofuel to produce electricity. BlueEarth Biofuels LLC, based in Texas and Arizona, is planning to have a new 40 million gallon-a-year biodiesel plant operating on Maui by 2009, with annual capacity increasing to 120 million gallons by 2011. The Maui Electric Company (MEC) will be an owner-partner of the plant, the first phase of which will likely cost $61 million, not counting land costs.
Hawaii currently imports huge amounts of the energy/fuel it needs, and to start off production BlueEarth will continue the trend, making biodiesel from imported palm oil. There is a chance that the facility might "one day run on Hawaii-grown feed stock such as local palm oil, jatropha, kukui nut, coconut or other oil rich crops," but let's not start holding our breath quite yet, K?
The biodiesel made at the new plant will go to the Ma'alaea Power Plant, run by MEC to start it down the path of generating all its electricity without using fossil fuels," said. Ed Reinhardt, MEC president. All of MEC's profits from this biodiesel project will go into a Hawaii Biofuels Public Trust to further local bio-energy infrastructure.
[Source: Renewable Energy Access]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 10:45AM (3/02/2007)
...the facility might "one day run on Hawaii-grown feed stock such as local palm oil, jatropha, kukui nut, coconut or other oil rich crops,"
One would think that the feedstock of choice would be algae, especially considering 1) limited land availability, 2) dedicated use to which an engine can be specially tailored and tightly controlled. Plus, the exhaust of the generating plant could be routed back through the algae growth tanks, making the whole thing even greener.
Palm oil is definitely NOT the 'green' choice. They need to use something that doesn't encourage clear-cutting of rainforests.
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lakshmi 7:55AM (3/03/2007)
Feed stock for biodiesel ????
The answer is EBT.
for details contact
lakshmi@ebtplc.com
www.ebtplc.com
Reply