Fire on the mountain: Pacific Biodiesel plant threatened but OK
Photo: Maui County
June 6, 2013
BY Ron Kotrba
A fire started last weekend at the Eko Compost site in Maui, shutting down the Central Maui Landfill - Refuse & Recycling Center, the Olowalu Recycling & Refuse Convenience Center, and Pacific Biodiesel Technologies’ grease collection facility earlier this week. Maui County firefighters along with county and state crews worked together to get the blaze under control.
“We had damage to a couple of chassis and tanks, but the plant itself was unaffected,” Beth Mathias, director of sales and marketing with Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, told Biodiesel Magazine. “We were down for one day as the landfill was closed while the fire department secured the area.”
Last year, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies collected more than 1.75 million gallons of trap grease and used cooking oil at its Maui facility, where the company removes the moisture, insolubles and unsaponifiables (MIU) before shipping the rendered feedstock to its new 5.5 MMgy Big Island Biodiesel refinery.
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