• Ethanol and Kaua‘i Ethanol and Kaua‘i The addition of a product like ethanol to our vehicle fuels is mandated by state law. The amount of the non-oil fuel that has to be in our gasoline rises over the next
• Ethanol and Kaua‘i
Ethanol and Kaua‘i
The addition of a product like ethanol to our vehicle fuels is mandated by state law. The amount of the non-oil fuel that has to be in our gasoline rises over the next five to 10 years.
The question is where will the ethanol that might be used come from, and how and where it would be mixed in with petroleum products to create the fuel you buy at local gas pumps.
One solution that is favorable to Kaua‘i is as a sugar cane by-product. That would greatly help Gay & Robinson at Kaumakani, our last remaining operating sugar cane plantation on the island, stay in business, as the cost of growing, grinding and shipping sugar off Kaua‘i is high compared to the world-market price of sugar.
Last week at a hearing held by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, proponents of ethanol being made in Hawai‘i were heard, as well as representatives of various oil-based fuel organizations who are warning there might be problems with ethanol production in Hawai‘i.
G&R, and other companies who might produce ethanol from biomass like sugar cane, need rules set for the production. This issue has come to a head, and that’s what the meeting in part was about.
While the oil-company representative had some good reasons for moving such production offshore, the basic needs of local companies like G&R outweigh those reasons. Converting sugar cane to ethanol would bring jobs to the Westside, enhance chances for the continued operation of the last sugar cane plantation, and help diversify both our high-tech industry and our ag industry. We need to lend our support to G&R and the proponents of a locally based source of the raw materials from which ethanol is made. Up to the final closing of Lihue Plantation, the burning of bagasse, the sugar cane fiber left over after sugar cane is ground, happened in bulk at LP. This heated water to create steam that turned turbines that added electricity to our island grid. Not too long ago, about 30 percent of the electricity needed to power Kaua‘i was generated by bagasse. The road blocks and reasons for not turning back to sugar cane as a partial source of vehicle power on Kaua‘i can be overcome.
