Tag Archives: alaska
Hawaii BioEnergy Would Like To Biofuel Hawaiian Airlines Flights
Duane Shimogawa Reporter- Pacific Business News Hawaii BioEnergy, which has a signed agreement with Alaska Airlines to provide the Seattle-based carrier with locally-grown biofuel, is “intending to” approach Hawaiian Airlines about providing the state’s flagship carrier with biofuel as well, Joel Matsunaga , executive vice president and chief operating officer for Hawaii BioEnergy told PBN. “Our thing is liquid fuels [and] Hawaii needs liquid fuels at some point, [so] we are definitely a jet [fuel] market [and] the shipping industry does [too]. It’s critical to have it sourced locally,” he said. Hawaiian Airlines spokeswoman Ann Botticelli told PBN via email that the airline has not yet been approached by Hawaii BioEnergy, but it affirms that it is always interested in hearing about ways to increase its efficiency. Meantime, Hawaii BioEnergy, a consortium of three of the state’s largest landowners and three venture capital firms — including Kamehameha Schools , Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Inc. (NYSE: MLP), Grove Farm, Khosla Ventures, Finistere Ventures LLC and Ulupono Initiative — said previously that it plans to begin production of its biofuel product within five years of regulatory approval. Alaska Airlines is expected to start procuring jet fuel for its Hawaii flights as soon as fall 2018. The feedstock utilized for the biofuel will be woody biomass-based, Hawaii BioEnergy said. “The ability to service the market depends on land availability,” Matsunaga said. “The more we get the better.” He pointed out that the company’s best prospects are on Kauai and the Big Island, with Oahu suffering from availability issues as well as lots of competing uses. “Maui is not dissimilar to Oahu,” Matsunaga said. “There [are] still a lot of competing uses for land [there].” Last month, Hawaii BioEnergy said it is getting $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a Kauai-based biofuels energy project that will produce algae oil in a project that aims to demonstrate pre-processing technologies that reduce energy use, among other things. About two years ago, Hawaiian Electric Co. signed a contract with Hawaii BioEnergy to supply 10 million gallons of Kauai-grown biofuel annually to power its Kahe Generating Station in Leeward Oahu. Matsunaga said that the company is still waiting for the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to approve the 20-year contract with HECO. Continue reading
Alaska Airlines To Buy Sustainable Biojet From Hawaii BioEnergy
By Alaska Airlines | July 29, 2013 Photo: Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines and Hawai`i BioEnergy LLC announced they have signed an agreement for the carrier to purchase sustainable biofuel for its aircraft. Founded in 2006, Hawai`i BioEnergy is a consortium of three of Hawaii’s largest landowners and three venture capital companies who plan to use locally grown feedstocks to produce biofuels. Alaska Airlines is Hawai`i BioEnergy’s second customer, and the first airline to sign a contract. Hawaiian Electric Co. previously announced it had agreed to purchase 10 million gallons of fuel a year from Hawai`i BioEnergy for power generation to the state, pending approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Hawai`i BioEnergy will ramp up production of the sustainable fuels within five years of regulatory approval, allowing Alaska Airlines to begin procuring sustainable jet fuel for its Hawaii flights possibly as soon as fall 2018. “We are pleased to be partnering with Hawai`i BioEnergy to encourage the production and commercial distribution of sustainable fuels,” said Keith Loveless, Alaska Air Group’s executive vice president and general counsel. “Beyond the environmental advantages, it improves the fuel supply integrity in the state of Hawaii, which will allow for the further growth of our airline operations throughout the Islands.” “Alaska Airlines shares our goals of environmental responsibility and our commitment to sustainable, local energy production,” said Joel Matsunaga, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Hawai`i BioEnergy. “The development and commercialization of local, renewable energy is of critical importance to Hawaii, given the state imports 95 percent of its energy needs. Use of locally grown feedstocks for biofuel production will improve Hawaii’s energy sustainability and security while creating jobs in our communities.” The feedstock for the biofuel is anticipated to be woody biomass-based and will be consistent with the sustainability criteria established by the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels, an international multistakeholder initiative concerned with ensuring the sustainability of biomass production and processing. Alaska Airlines has reduced its carbon footprint intensity by 30 percent (measured by revenue passenger miles) since 2004. In 2011, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air were the first domestic airlines to fly multiple passenger flights powered by a biofuel blend. Alaska Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, together with its partner regional airlines, serves 95 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines has ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers” in the J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction StudySM for six consecutive years from 2008 to 2013. Hawai`i BioEnergy LLC is a consortium established by three of Hawaii’s largest landowners: Kamehameha Schools, Grove Farm Company Inc., and Maui Land & Pineapple Inc., along with venture capital partnerships including Vinod Khosla, Ulupono Initiative and Finistere Ventures. HBE’s mission is to contribute to a sustainable energy future for the state of Hawai`i through the production of biobased liquid fuels, power and other valuable coproducts from locally grown feedstocks. Continue reading
Biomass Of Northern Hemisphere Forests Mapped
ANI inShare Washington, June 27 (ANI): Thanks to satellites, the biomass of the northern hemisphere’s forests has been mapped with greater precision to help improve our understanding of the carbon cycle and our prediction of Earth’s future climate. Accurately measuring forest biomass and how it varies are key elements for taking stock of forests and vegetation. Since forests assist in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, mapping forest biomass is also important for understanding the global carbon cycle. In particular, northern forests – including forest soil – store a third more carbon stocks per hectare as tropical forests, making them one of the most significant carbon stores in the world. The boreal forest ecosystem – exclusive to the northern hemisphere – spans Russia, northern Europe, Canada and Alaska, with interrelated habitats of forests, lakes, wetlands, rivers and tundra. With processing software drawing in stacks of radar images from ESA’s Envisat satellite, scientists have created a map of the whole northern hemisphere’s forest biomass in higher resolution than ever before – each pixel represents 1 km on the ground. “Single Envisat radar images taken at a wavelength of approximately 5 cm cannot provide the sensitivity needed to map the composition of forests with high density,” Maurizio Santoro from Gamma Remote Sensing said. “Combining a large number of radar datasets, however, yields a greater sensitivity and gives a more accurate information on what’s below the forest canopy,” Santoro said. About 70 000 Envisat radar images from October 2009 to February 2011 were fed into this new, ‘hyper-temporal’ approach to create the pan-boreal map for 2010. This is the first radar-derived output on biomass for the whole northern zone using a single approach – and it is just one of the products from the Biomasar-II project. (ANI) Continue reading
