My biodiesel baby: Maui's alt-energy future?

Haleakala Times
January 02, 2007
by Sujata Gupta

I have a new rental car. It's a fire engine red 2007 Jetta, and it has less than 300 miles on it. Make that had. In the last two days, my Jetta and I have traversed the island. We've gone upcountry and out to West Maui and made it part of the way to Hana. The odometer says I've burned through more than 100 miles.

My wallet groans a little in my pocket. But it's not so bad. After all, I'm driving for a cause, a green cause. That's because my Jetta runs on the grease used to fry French fries and tater tots. It's my biodiesel baby, courtesy of Bio-Beetle, a Kahului company that only rents biodiesel-powered cars.

Gary Hooser knows what I'm talking about. The state's Senate Majority leader rented close to 20 Bio-Beetle cars while campaigning here in Maui a few months ago. "It just felt really good," Hooser says. It felt good driving it." Hooser's talking about more than a smooth ride, though. "It's great," he says, "knowing that you're not supporting fossil fuels and not supporting the war."

The benefits of using biodiesel - which is derived from plant oils - are both economic and environmental. Because the state lacks its own petroleum reserves, it is entirely reliant on the volatile oil market for its fuel. The price of oil in Hawaii went up by more than 25 percent between June 2005 and June 2006, according to Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. And from an environmental perspective, says Kelly Takaya King, co-owner of Pacific Biodiesel, a Maui-based biodiesel supplier, biodiesel burns between 75 and 80 percent cleaner than petroleum.

Currently, both here in Hawaii and on the mainland, most biodiesel comes from restaurant oil waste. But the real goal is to find crops that produce enough oil to generate not just cars, but heavy equipment and even electricity. King says that she would love to fuel cars with more than just restaurant oil waste. "There's only so much used cooking oil on the island," she says, adding that demand outstrips supply.

But little research has been done on the feasibility of growing crops here in Hawaii purely for the production of oil. The state and federal governments, says King, need to put more money into growing demonstration crops to see what works and what doesn't. Until that happens, says King, most farmers will be unwilling to take the financial risk needed to start producing a new crop. "You can't really ask anybody to grow something without knowing that they're going to make money at it," she says.

But seated in Lance Holter's Pa'ia living room, it seems that King's wish has been at least partially realized. Holter, president of Maui's Sierra Club chapter has just handed me a fat document titled "Biodiesel Crop Implementation in Hawaii." Commissioned by the state Department of Agriculture and researched by the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, the report includes everything from how much land is available on each of Hawaii's main islands, infrastructure constraints, and, of course, which oil crops might grow well here in Hawaii.

Holter recently met with state senators to discuss how to make Hawaii an energy independent state. The meeting occurred, he explains, before HARC released this study. "When I was speaking to them [biodiesel] was a conceptual thing," Holter says, adding that most political leaders are hesitant to fund projects without first assessing their financial risks. This study, says Holter, could provide a much needed economic engine.

To its credit, lawmakers already created tax exemptions for biodiesel fuel, says King. For example, the state and federal taxes for diesel gasoline are 58 cents per gallon, compared to 28 cents per gallon for biodiesel. But, King adds, the state needs to pay "more than lip service" when it comes to actually producing its own oil-bearing crops.

Holter and King have at least one senator on their side. Hooser says that the state definitely plans to look at renewable energy initiatives in 2008. "It's safe to say that the legislature is going to be looking at appropriate ways ? that we can support biodiesel, ethanol and other renewable energy technologies," he says. But Hooser would like to do more than just commission studies. "I'm hoping that we can provide funding for some pilot projects and I'm also hoping that we can expand the state's use of biodiesel and ethanol in our state fleet," he says.

While excited about the possibility of growing oil crops in Hawaii, the man behind the HARC study - crop and soil scientist Michael Poteet - urges caution. "There hasn't really been much success with oil crops in Hawaii," he says. "There has been some small field tests with things like soybean, sunflower ? They don't really perform as efficiently as we'd like them to."

Moreover, Hawaii lacks the manpower needed to get a large-scale oil crop endeavor off the ground. "The problem in Hawaii is we don't have a lot of farmers," says Poteet. "We don't have a lot of people who are ready to get a 100 acres of their own and go into full production." And with Hawaii's myriad of microclimates what works for one farmer in one region or island may not work for another farmer elsewhere.

But Poteet hasn't given up on the technology. In fact, little could be further from the truth. When asked if biodiesel could become the next "big thing" in terms of renewable energy, Poteet gives a definitive 'yes.' Hawaii needs biodiesel, says Poteet, for two reasons: food and national security. Because Hawaii imports about 95 percent of its food, it is dependent on a reliable oil supply for shipments. A disruption in that oil supply means a disruption in the state's food supply. That leads Poteet to his next concern: a natural disaster. A hurricane or earthquake could sever the state's oil supply without warning.

So Poteet is doing his part to make the shift from petroleum to biodiesel a reality. With the help of outside grants, Poteet has started a test plot on an HARC-owned acre of land. He's growing a plant called Jatropha, which he believes is one of the more promising crops in his study. Jatropha can grow on marginal lands, or lands that don't receive a lot of water, and has low nutrient requirements.

The challenge for state politicians, says Poteet, is determining how long to subsidize biodiesel initiatives before allowing the industry to function on its own. "We don't want this to be something that relies forever and forever on state and federal funding," he says. Though he does recommend that, at least at the onset, politicians maintain a certain level of financial support for research initiatives. It takes anywhere from two to five years for a new crop to bear fruit or nuts, he says.

At least here in Maui, biodiesel has two prominent supporters, Kelly Takaya King and Shaun Stenshol, owners of Bio-Beetle. Both would like to see Hawaii produce its own oil-bearing crops and both would like to see the government do more to make it happen. In the meantime, both say that their immediate goal is to get people excited about using biodiesel.

Interest in biodiesel is growing, says Stenshol, who started Bio-Beetle in 2003 with one car. Since Bio-Beetle's inception, King's company has supplied his fuel. Now, just three years later, Stenshol has expanded his Maui fleet to 20 cars. He also recently opened a branch in Los Angeles with nine cars, and in the next five years, he'd like to open up branches throughout the mainland.

King attributes part of this growth to economics. People who don't necessarily prioritize the environment, she says, are becoming increasingly interested in biodiesel because its prices don't fluctuate. For example, last year biodiesel at Pacific was about 75 cents more than petroleum. Now, they're almost exactly even. "Our philosophy has been to keep the price stable for six months to a year," she says.

For my part, I'm pretty sure that as soon as I scrape up the cash I'm going to buy my own biodiesel baby. For now, however, it's going to have to be a thumb on the side of the road.

see related stories:
$61M biodiesel plant outlined
Pacific Biodiesel has 'momentum' - without MECO