UH ag school receives $6 million federal grant to study local sustainable energy

HONOLULU—The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources was recently awarded $6 million by the U.S. Department of Energy to increase Hawaii’s energy security using locally produced renewable energy.

The federal money will fund a project to develop high-yielding biofuel feedstocks that are economically viable and sustainable. Establishing local biofuel production for transportation fuel can have a tremendous impact in improving Hawaii’s environment, helping the economy, and reducing dependence on foreign oil. Currently air, sea, and land transportation fuel alone accounts for 63 percent of the oil imported into the state.

As a first step toward this goal, the project will examine the use of tropical grasses such as banagrass, energy sorghum, and energy cane for biofuel production, and develop ways to assess the sustainability of renewable energy production in Hawaii.