Dr. Dennis Gonsalves and Gov. Neil Abercrombie. (Photo courtesy of Governor’s Office)

MEDIA RELEASE

At a special open house event at the USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC), Gov. Neil Abercrombie has presented a $200,000 check from the state Department of Agriculture that will go toward the Hilo center’s zero waste biofuel and high protein feed program.

PBARC along with Florida-based BioTork Hawaii LLC have invested more than $1 million to successfully develop an economically sustainable zero waste conversion project producing biofuel and high protein animal feed from unmarketable papaya.

The conversion process takes 14 days to cycle in a heterotrophic environment, meaning no sunlight is needed using organically optimized algae/fungi developed and patented by BioTork.

The state’s $200,000 investment will assist PBARC in moving the project to pilot scale as a prelude to commercial production.

The state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) will become a venture partner to globally export the rapid conversion technology in association with PBARC and BioTork Hawaii LLC.

“This patented evolutionary technology is unique to the marketplace and places Hawaii in a leading position in the area of biofuel and feed research,” Abercrombie said. “With this technology, farmers can turn agricultural waste into an additional revenue stream, and local production of biofuel can lower dependence on Hawaii’s import of fossil fuels.

“Aside from the benefit of producing biofuel, this technology has the ability to create another revenue stream for papaya and other tropical agriculture farmers. Local high protein feed production – another by-product of this process – can greatly benefit cattle, hog, chicken and aquaculture farms through competitive market pricing.”

The state also hopes to develop a long-term revenue generator as a partner exporting this technology. At full scale, more than 1,000 jobs are projected.

While papaya was chosen as the initial feedstock, this technology can be applied to any plant material as a carbon source. In Hawaii, other identifiable feedstock are unmarketable sweet potato, sugar cane, mango, albizia and glycerol. Invasive trees like albizia could be used as feedstock in this zero waste program.

“This Hawaii-based technological development is a major breakthrough that focuses on key components hampering the sustainability efforts of other microorganism based biofuel projects,” said James Nakatani, ADC executive director. “These obstacles include the high cost of feedstock. Approximately 70 percent of the cost for production is consumed in this area. Using unmarketable plant and other waste materials drastically reduces this cost driver.

“While past lab projects have not translated into robust performances when scaled-up, BioTork’s solution promotes rapid and dynamic evolution of microorganisms that are robust even in ‘suboptimal’ conditions.”

Research and development funds will be used for customizing feedstock formulations to create Hawaii’s zero waste conversion technological library. The library will be available for export and sale to other states and countries.

The U.S. alone produces up to 20 million metric tons of culled produce from which as much as 1.7 billion gallons of renewable lipids could be made.

Also at the event, the governor honored Kohala-born Dennis Gonsalves, Ph.D. by proclaiming April 6 “Dr. Dennis Gonsalves Day,” recognizing his research efforts at PBARC to improve and develop sustainable agriculture crops and programs in Hawaii and around the world.

Gonsalves served for 10 years as PBARC’s director and recently retired. He is most noted for his efforts that saved Hawaii’s papaya industry from the ringspot virus.

The transgenic “Rainbow Papaya” that he and his team developed and released to growers in 1998 helped to bring the industry back after ringspot virus had reduced Hawaii’s papaya production by 50 percent.

(Photo courtesy of Governor’s Office)