With a defense contract in hand, Hawai‘i BioEnergy LLC, in which Maui Land & Pineapple Co. is a founding partner, is ready “to move from R (research) to D development),” says ML&P Chief Operating Officer Robert “Rob” Webber.

A marker of progress since the alliance was formed in 2006 was the appointment last week of an executive vice president, Joel Matsunaga.

Hawai‘i BioEnergy is a venture of three large landowners, Maui Land & Pineapple Co., Kamehameha Schools and Grove Farm, who came together to identify and develop new sources of renewable energy.

Other consortium partners include Finistere Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm based in San Diego; Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., which offers venture assistance, strategic advice and capital to entrepreneurs; and Ohana Holdings LLC, an investment firm based in Hanalei, Kauai.

The venture has been exploring several avenues on alternative energy, looking for ways that would maximize its land assets, such as by developing ethanol from sugar cane.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) exploration contract is more unusual — trying to make military jet fuel (JP-8) from algae.

DARPA asked for a proposal focused on Hawaii because the Department of Defense buys a lot of fossil jet fuel in the islands.

Read more …

(Source: Harry Eagar, The Maui News)