Gas Co. sets plans to turn fat into fuel
Hawai’i’s sole producer of synthetic natural gas is turning to the barnyard as it looks to go greener with renewable fuel sources.
The Gas Company is eyeing animal fats — some of it being tossed into landfills now — as a means to produce half of its synthetic natural gas by the year 2015.
It’s drawn up plans to turn fats such as beef tallow, poultry fat and choice white grease from pigs into biomethane, a gas that’s chemically identical to natural gas. Currently the company uses petroleum byproducts from local refineries for its feedstock.