Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) today announced that it is at the center of significant new Hawaii-based research initiatives on biofuels, working closely with the University of Hawaii and various federal agencies to realize the promise of expanded production of clean, renewable energy.
In today’s announcement, HC&S noted support from Sen. Daniel K. Inouye in detailing annual federal funding of at least $4 million that will be made available through two separate programs, one funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the other by the Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), to conduct research at HC&S.
The DOE funding of $2 million annually will be directed to research on energy crop development and energy conversion technologies to be conducted by the University’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). The ONR funding, also $2 million annually, will support complementary crop and technology assessments, as well as an evaluation of long-term resource requirements for biomass production. In announcing the ONR portion of the funding, US Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said the USDA would direct the research initiatives, providing $2 million per year through 2015, to help Hawaii accelerate sustainable biofuel feedstock production.