Pacific Biodiesel will begin sunflower harvest this month

Pacific Biodiesel Technologies is expected to begin the first harvest of its Maui sunflower biofuel crop this month, once the flowers have fully matured, according to Lahaina News.

The company has recently taken delivery of a combine harvester, purchased from a family farm in northern California, which will be used to mechanically harvest the sunflowers and other oil and grain crops. The harvester will operate on 100% biodiesel produced by Pacific Biodiesel at its refinery on Hawaii’s Big Island.

In February 2017 Pacific Biodiesel began growing biofuel crops including sunflowers in Maui’s central valley. The project covering 115 acres aims to expand on diversifying agriculture by growing oil crops on land previously used for sugar cane farming. It is the largest biofuel crop farming project in Hawaii, and the only one in the state to run 100% on biofuels.

It aims to be a sustainable, economically viable, zero waste system to grow crops for food, animal feed and fuel.

The initial sunflower field, the first biofuel crop to be planted in the project, covers 14 acres of the total site. A second sunflower crop has now also been planted, adjacent to the original.