Deep-Fried Greenness

Kauai

People on Kauai, like all of Hawaii, love fried food: chicken katsu, tempura, meat jun. There’s definitely no shortage of grease, so why not put it to good use?

Kauai Farm Fuel is the first company on the Garden Isle to recycle waste vegetable oil on Kauai and turn it into a biodiesel that can be used to power up heavy farm or construction equipment, and boiler fuel, which is burned like propane for heating purposes. The procedure is a fairly simple “bucket chemistry” process, says Adam Asquith, who is partners with Stuart Wellington in the Hanapepe-based business, which began about a year ago.

Each month, Kauai Farm Fuel receives about 6,000 gallons of used cooking oil and about 1,500 gallons of used trap grease — that really foul, chunky stuff that’s scraped off of flattop grills, say, after your bacon is fried — from almost two-thirds of Kauai’s restaurants. The oil then undergoes a strict filtering and purification process before it is converted to biodeisel and sold.

“We provide a much better solution than dumping the oil down the drain or throwing it in the trash where it becomes the single most frequent cause of sewage spills and overflows,” says Asquith, who says his company is permitted and regulated as a recycling operation.

And it’s cheaper.

“People who buy our boiler fuel are seeing an almost 50 percent reduction in price, compared to what it’s being sold for commercially.” Kauai Farm Fuel has about 30 customers on the Garden Isle, ranging from farmers who use 40 gallons a month to large contractors who purchase 400 gallons a month. The company’s primary goal is to foster sustainability on Kauai.

While Asquith says he’d like to expand the family operation even further, the company’s output depends on the amount of used oil it receives. “We’ve already got most of the island’s restaurants participating in this program,” he says. “In order to keep up with continued demand, we’re really going to have to push to get the remainder of the restaurants on board.” Kauai Farm Fuel is also exploring the option of collecting used cooking oil from residents.
—Shara Enay

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to Hawaii Business Magazine »