Pacific Biodiesel
- Feb 16, 2022
- 1 min read

Pacific Biodiesel operations exceeded expectations last year

Pacific Biodiesel's 5.5 mgy production facility on the Big Island of Hawaii (Photo: Pacific Biodiesel)

Despite the many challenges of 2021, Pacific Biodiesel’s operations teams realized some notable successes.

“The last half of the year was the most challenging due to Covid,” said Alfred Leung, plant manager of the 5.5-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel production facility on the Big Island of Hawaii. “But our employees pushed through, going above and beyond to meet the needs of our 24/7 operation. People stepped up, filling in positions and shifts. We even got help from other departments.”

Teamwork throughout the Pacific Biodiesel network, including here on the Big Island, made the operational successes of 2021 possible. (Photo: Pacific Biodiesel)

Leung said the credit goes to Pacific Biodiesel’s entire team. “Not just here on Hawaii Island, but also the teams on Maui and Oahu who provide us with much of the used cooking oil feedstock to make biodiesel,” he added. “They really stepped up the volume this past year, which was so important given the national supply-chain issues. With the support of our leadership team, we were able to make it work and exceed the plant’s nameplate production capacity in 2021.”

With a new fan-press system ready to go online, Leung said he anticipates even better results in the coming year.

Feedstock recovery from grease-trap waste hit a record for the company in 2021. (Photo: Pacific Biodiesel)

The Oahu facility at Sand Island set the bar with a record amount of feedstock recovery from grease-trap waste in 2021, exceeding the goal set at the beginning of the year.

“With a targeted maintenance plan, our team was able to focus on consistency and ensured that our vehicles had the capacity to deliver additional grease-trap waste for processing,” said Brian Leighton, Oahu plant manager. The facility also processed the muck layer from the grease-trap waste and effectively processed wastewater, which added to the record recovery efforts.