emiller@westhawaiitoday.com
BY ERIN MILLER | WEST HAWAII TODAY
Gov. Neil Abercrombie in his State of the State address Monday touched on one of Hawaii’s hottest topics — sustainable and renewable energy.
What Abercrombie didn’t discuss, and what other state and county officials usually don’t mention in conversations about getting Hawaii fully powered by renewable energy sources, is what alternatives might be available for jet fuel and cargo ships.
According to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, Hawaii imported 36.4 million barrels of crude oil from January 2011 through October 2011, the most recent month for which numbers were available.
Tesoro Hawaii has a capacity to refine up to 94,000 barrels of oil daily, Manager of Government and Public Affairs Lance Tanaka said. The plant doesn’t usually run at full capacity, he added.
“It varies,” he said. “It all depends on demand.”
Tesoro Hawaii refines about half of the jet fuel used in Hawaii, he said, although he could not provide that amount. Airlines also import already refined fuel, Tanaka added.
The company has a confidential contract with military branches in Hawaii as well. Tanaka could not release how much fuel Tesoro sells to the military.
A message left with Chevron’s public affairs office was not returned Monday.
Tesoro Hawaii is working with Honeywell’s UOP LLC on a demonstration plant converting biomass to biofuels, Tanaka added. UOP received a $25 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to built the plant.
Biofuels are the way of the future, Tanaka said. The important questions that need to be answered, he said, are “how do you commercialize it? What is the scalability of that?”
Alaska Airlines, which has several direct flights to Kona International Airport, pushed last year to raise awareness of the feasibility of using biofuels in commercial airlines, spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said. The company in November mixed the jet fuel of 75 flights with a biofuel drop in, Egan said. The ratio of traditional fuel to biofuel was 80 percent to 20 percent.
“The (fuel) industry is waiting to see if there’s demand and airlines are waiting for prices to go down,” Egan said.
Alaska Airlines officials wanted to show there was demand, and educate their passengers about the existence of biofuel for airplanes. The company used the mixed fuel in flights from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and Seattle to Portland. The fuel was from cooking oil, from Louisiana, Egan said.
“The fuel itself is indistinguishable from” regular jet fuel, she added.
The company paid a premium for the demonstration — $17 per gallon of the biofuel, compared with an average $3.14 a gallon for regular fuel.
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved drop in fuel mixtures of up to 50 percent, Egan said.
A spokesman for Matson said he was not aware of any alternative fuels cargo ships like the ones the company uses. Cargo ships run on bunker fuel, Jeff Hull said.
“Historically, bunker fuel was the much cheaper alternative,” he said. “Last year, bunker exceeded crude.”
A message left Monday for Young Brothers was not returned.
emiller@westhawaiitoday.com