Federal agencies have announced they would spend millions of dollars to study producing advanced biofuels from sugarcane grown at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar’s fields on Maui.

The Office of Naval Research is budgeting $2 million annually for the project through 2015, with a focus on producing diesel and jet fuel from sugar.

The Department of Energy is spending $2 million a year to have the University of Hawaii study energy crop development and energy conversion technologies.

HC&S General Manager Chris Benjamin says his company will be a “working laboratory” to test the potential of biofuel production.

“This federal funding represents a vote of confidence in Hawaii and in the future of HC&S,” Benjamin said in a news release. “It is a significant step toward our goal of transforming HC&S into a large-scale energy farm, playing a key role in securing Hawaii’s energy future.”

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After this year though, continuation of operations remains subject to favorable results in the water cases pending before the state Commission on Water Resource Management, as well as other factors such as higher production level.

According to HC&S General Manager Chris Benjamin, rising sugar prices entering this year and forecasted higher production has bought HC&S some additional time to prove sugar’s viability to Maui industry, and “production is expected to increase primarily as a result of the return to near-normal rainfall levels over the past year.”

Improving sugar yields is dependent on water, and the future of HC&S lies greatly on both the East and West Maui water decisions, according to Benjamin. HC&S has been actively looking into a future as an energy farm and is unlikely to count on sugar to support the company long-term.

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The company announced late Thursday night that its subsidiary, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., will continue planting the crop for at least another year.

The decision means that harvesting will likely continue through early 2012.

A&B previously said that $45 million in losses over the last two years would prompt it to make a decision by the end of last year whether to shutter HC&S.

Favorable sugar prices and expectations of higher crop yields based on projections for better weather led the company to back HC&S for at least another year, according to A&B’s chief financial officer, Christopher Benjamin, who took over command of HC&S in March.

A&B’s sugar business now has another year to perform before the operation is reassessed around the end of this year.

A&B’s long-term plan is to convert the plantation to a biofuel farm, and the company intends to craft a strategic plan toward that goal this year.

A&B is exploring ways to produce biodiesel or ethanol from sugar or other plant feedstock, as well as generate electricity from biofuels, solar and wind.

“We believe that there is no better location in Hawai’i for a renewable energy farm, but we will only be able to achieve that long-term potential if we remain a viable sugar plantation in the near term,” Benjamin said.

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photo credit: Honolulu Advertiser

The last harvest by Kaua’i sugar producer Gay and Robinson marks end of an era in Hawaii, reports the Honolulu Advertiser. Gay and Robinson is shifting focus to leasing and energy.

Barring rain delay on the island of Kaua’i, the last field of Gay & Robinson sugar cane will be harvested and fed into its mill.

The last cane-haul truck will take a circuitous route through Hanapepe and Waimea, trailed by Gay & Robinson employees in trucks decorated with signs thanking the people and businesses of west Kaua’i for their support through 120 years in the sugar business.

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Gay & Robinson announced Wednesday that by late October it will have sent the last of the sugar cane from its final harvest to the mill. And that will be that, for a company that had grown cane since the 1890s.

Dow Agrosciences has leased some of the land to grow seed crops, and has hired some of the Gay & Robinson employees. Pacific Energy wants to grow ethanol on some other Gay & Robinson land, though this does not ensure a continuation of sugar cane – other crops may be more efficient for fuel-growth.

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