Pacific Biodiesel’s newest venture, Big Island Biodiesel, began production in the 4th quarter of 2012

KONA, Hawaii – Pacific Biodiesel Technologies Vice President and co-founder Kelly King will be the featured speaker at the Wednesday, March 19th installment of the Exceptional Energy Lecture Series at the NELHA Gateway Visitor Center. King will speak on “Fuels and Transportation”, according to a media release.

Kelly King cofounded Pacific Biodiesel, a renewable energy company, with her husband Robert King in 1996. The company was the first commercial biodiesel firm in the US and was initially created to alleviate the disposal of waste cooking oil at Maui’s landfill. As director of marketing and communications, Kelly has helped to develop 13 biodiesel plants in the US and Japan.

The company’s newest venture, Big Island Biodiesel, began production in the 4th quarter of 2012. This 5.5M- gallon-a-year biodiesel plant located in Kea’au on Hawaii Island is the most modern facility in the world. Featuring zero-waste processing, this plant produces the highest quality biodiesel available in the country. The company also has a grease trap and used cooking oil operation servicing the entire Big Island.

In 2006, with Daryl Hannah and Willie and Annie Nelson, Kelly co-founded the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, a national nonprofit organization that is developing a certification process for sustainable biodiesel practices. In Hawaii, Kelly has been active as a board member on many local nonprofits and served on the Hawaii State Board of Education, representing Maui County. She is currently chair of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance and serves on the board of Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance, Hawaii Energy Policy Forum, and UHMC Sustainable Sciences Management Advisory Council. She is working on several agriculture-related projects with Pacific Biodiesel.

Since its founding, Pacific Biodiesel has been involved in all aspects of the biodiesel business, from fuel crop research and waste oil collection to fuel processing, quality management, and distribution. The company designs, owns, builds, and operates scalable, multiple-feedstock biodiesel plants utilizing used cooking oil, yellow grease, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil, tallow, and other feedstocks. The company’s community-based biodiesel model has become a standard for the sustainable, renewable fuel industry.Friends of NELHA media release, March 10, 2014

The Exceptional Energy Lecture Series is hosted by the Friends of NELHA, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 to provide education and outreach for renewable energy, sustainable aquaculture, and other green technology, particularly with respect to programs showcased at NELHA. The lecture series consists of five talks on energy issues, and is sponsored in part by the Hawaii Energy Resource Center, a component of the County of Hawaii’s Department of Research and Development.