Kawaihae · Hawaiʻi Island
Six interdependent pillars operating as one industrial ecology at the deep-draft harbor: hydrogen fuel, cogeneration, post-combustion carbon recovery, biochar, engineered wood products from plantation eucalyptus, and Mandeville Modular's 60,000 sq ft modular manufacturing plant.
01 — Framing
Each of these businesses can stand alone. None of them is as strong alone. The value of the Kawaihae campus is that the waste stream of every pillar is the feedstock of another — heat, fiber, carbon and logistics circulate inside the fenceline instead of leaving it as cost.
This framework treats the site as a single system with four circulating loops, six operating pillars, a phased build sequence, and one shared governance and measurement layer. Decisions are evaluated against the whole campus, not against a single P&L.
The governing principle: nothing leaves the campus as waste that could leave it as product, energy, or stored carbon.
02 — Tenants & energy sovereignty
All 4.2 MW of firm power from the cogeneration site is used amongst the tenants. No energy is supplied to the grid. This project highlights energy sovereignty for the DHHL industrial zone at Kawaihae. Each of the five tenants operates as a standalone business, while every effort to pool energy and waste is made circular to the sustainable infrastructure campus.
The energy sovereignty initiative is the foundation for the collective “carbon kuleana” — a shared responsibility, held together by these five businesses, to keep the carbon, fiber and energy of this place in service to this place.
DHHL master lessee · CCUS and dry ice
Master lessee of the DHHL industrial parcel and operator of carbon capture, storage and utilization on campus — LCO₂ purification, bulk storage, ISO container filling and high-density dry ice pellet production with revert recovery on the pelletizer. Non-dry-ice volume serves greenhouse agriculture as aqueous CO₂; no beverage-grade offtake.
dibshawaii.comPrimary anchor tenant · biochar, soil amendments and pyrolysis co-products
Primary anchor tenant, operating existing equipment and reactors and drawing on an existing 15,000-ton macadamia nut shell feedstock already on site. Premier biochar comes from Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company shell waste. Macadamia shell pyrolysis oils are further processed into wood vinegar and liquid smoke for nursery operations, plus a biodiesel cut blended with diesel at the cogen. AgEnergy also processes debarked woodchip from smaller logs — the same quality and specification stream Hawaii Hardwoods uses — creating a sustainable biochar supply returned to the forest.
agenergyhawaii.comSteel-frame modular buildings and housing units
Manufacturing buildings and modular units in a 60,000 sq ft plant on campus, specializing in steel-frame construction to address quality affordable building for Hawaiʻi. Campus engineered wood from Hawaii Hardwoods is a potential value-added resource in their module packages.
mandevillemodular.comPlantation forestry, veneer and premium plywood
Operates the plantation eucalyptus harvesting and logging operation and the engineered wood products facility. Its primary product offering is plantation eucalyptus veneer for a premium plywood supply for the islands, with engineered wood as a value-added component to Mandeville Modular's steel-frame modules and fiber residuals routed to AgEnergy Hawaiʻi.
Energy partner · cogeneration and on-demand hydrogen
Operates the 4.2 MW cogeneration facility and partners with DIBS Hawaii on post-combustion CO₂ recovery. NAER integrates its novel Nova H2 on-demand hydrogen supply technology, blended with diesel to lower energy costs and cut the carbon intensity of campus power.
naer-inc.comPower balance
4.2 MW generated · 4.2 MW consumed on campus · 0 MW exported. Load is allocated between tenants under a shared behind-the-meter agreement, with waste heat and waste streams pooled across the fenceline.
03 — Operating pillars
On-demand hydrogen, blended with diesel
NAER Inc's Nova H2 system generates hydrogen on demand at the point of use — no large-scale storage inventory to manage. The hydrogen is blended with diesel in the cogeneration units to lower fuel burn and energy cost per kWh while supporting a broader decarbonization effort across the campus.
Thermal and electrical anchor — behind the fence
The cogen station is the hub of the campus. All 4.2 MW of firm power is consumed by the five campus tenants — none of it is exported to the utility grid. Its exhaust and jacket heat become the process energy every other tenant depends on. This is energy sovereignty for a DHHL industrial zone.
Carbon management layer
A post-combustion capture train on the cogen flue gas turns the campus's largest emissions point into a merchant product stream. Steam for solvent regeneration is drawn from the same cogen cycle it cleans.
Durable carbon removal · AgEnergy Hawaiʻi
AgEnergy Hawaiʻi is the campus primary anchor tenant, operating with existing equipment and reactors already on site and taking advantage of an existing 15,000-ton macadamia nut shell feedstock stockpile at Kawaihae. Pyrolysis produces durable biochar plus condensable co-products and syngas that are returned to the campus rather than flared.
Value-added materials
The newest pillar converts Big Island plantation eucalyptus into engineered wood. The primary product offering is plantation eucalyptus veneer for a premium plywood supply made for the islands — displacing imported panels — with LVL, glulam and mass-timber components as follow-on lines.
Steel-frame modular manufacturing
Mandeville Modular joins the campus alongside primary anchor tenant AgEnergy Hawaiʻi, building a 60,000 sq ft manufacturing plant at Kawaihae. Their specialization is steel-frame construction — durable, code-resilient volumetric modules for housing, workforce accommodation, medical and commercial buildings, shipped complete out of the deep-draft harbor. Engineered wood products from Hawaii Hardwoods are a potential value-added resource within that steel-frame system.
mandevillemodular.com04 — Circulating loops
Waste heat becomes the process energy for drying, pressing and solvent regeneration.
Every ton of log entering the campus leaves as structure, char or energy — not waste.
Three distinct carbon sinks: recovered gas, durable char, and long-lived wood products.
Deep-water berth, laydown and rail-free short-haul keep intermodal cost low.
05 — Regenerative forestry
Plantation eucalyptus from the Hāmākua Coast enters the campus as renewable feedstock and splits into two value streams. Biochar made from the residual stream returns to the very lands the trees came from — the forest helps rebuild itself.
Carbon stored for decades in buildings across Hawaiʻi and beyond.
No waste stream — the same fiber becomes durable carbon removal.
The regenerative cycle
Forest → Lumber → Building Products
Forest Residuals → Biochar → Forest Soils
06 — Carbon logistics
Captured carbon moves from compliance expense to revenue-generating product — one of Hawaiʻi's few local sources of industrial-grade liquid CO₂.
The 4.2 MW combined-cycle cogeneration facility captures CO₂ from its exhaust stream — captured, purified, liquefied and stored onsite.
Horizontal cryogenic tanks inside the industrial campus hold liquid CO₂, making Kawaihae a strategic carbon logistics hub for the state.
The dominant LCO₂ offtake is high-density dry ice pellets and nuggets for food distribution, fisheries, medical transport, agriculture, interisland shipping and emergency response.
Pelletizer flash vapor is captured by revert recovery and reliquified back into the LCO₂ loop instead of being vented, lifting yield per ton captured and keeping the utilization step near closed-loop.
Remaining volume moves in 20-foot ISO tank containers to interisland markets. Non-dry-ice utilization is directed to greenhouse agriculture as CO₂ delivered in aqueous solution — none of the offtake is offered for beverage service.
Pelletizer · revert recovery
Liquid CO₂ is extruded through the die head into high-density pellets and nuggets. The flash vapor that normally escapes at the die face is drawn back through revert recovery, reliquified and returned to the LCO₂ loop — more product per ton captured, and no working-loss emissions from the utilization step itself.
07 — End to end
Plantation eucalyptus cultivation
Primary EWP line — long-lived carbon storage in island buildings
Mandeville Modular — 60,000 sq ft steel-frame plant, EWP as value-added component
Wood waste and unusable material recovered
Permanent carbon sequestration
Biochar returned to plantation lands
Power, steam and process heat for campus operations
Recovery of CO₂ from power generation
Bulk storage, ISO tank filling, interisland transport
Primary offtake · revert recovery reliquifies pelletizer vapor
Excess power supports future clean fuel and water production
08 — Positioning
The HI-CCSU Campus is a regenerative industrial ecosystem where Hawaiʻi-grown biomass is transformed into engineered wood products, renewable energy, durable carbon storage, liquid CO₂ commodities, hydrogen, and water resources. By integrating forestry, manufacturing, biochar production, cogeneration, carbon capture, and resource recovery into a single platform, the campus eliminates traditional waste streams while maximizing economic and environmental value. Carbon harvested from the forest is stored in buildings, residual biomass is converted into biochar and returned to the forest, and captured CO₂ becomes a marketable product for statewide distribution. The result is a circular infrastructure model that advances Native Hawaiian economic development, climate resilience, resource security, and industrial decarbonization for Hawaiʻi.
09 — Sequencing
0–12 months
12–30 months
30–54 months
54+ months
10 — Performance basis
Net-negative
Capture + char + stored timber vs. residual stack emissions
4.2 MW sovereign
100% consumed by campus tenants, zero grid export
Zero-waste mill
100% of log volume to product, char or energy
Import displacement
Structural timber and fuel made in Hawaii, for Hawaii
11 — Shared layer
Kawaihae is a place of deep cultural significance. Consultation with lineal descendants, Native Hawaiian organizations and the Kohala community is a design input, not a compliance step — covering viewsheds, access, iwi kūpuna protocols and nearshore water quality.
Arid leeward siting means water is the binding constraint. Closed-loop cooling, condensate recovery from flue gas treatment, and zero process discharge to the nearshore reef are non-negotiable design bases.
Hydrogen storage, solvent handling and pyrolysis each carry distinct hazard profiles. A single campus-wide HAZOP, unified emergency response with Hawaii County, and layered detection cover the combined footprint.
Independent MRV across all three carbon sinks. Continuous emissions monitoring on the stack, mass-balance accounting on char, and chain-of-custody on plantation fiber — one auditable ledger for the whole campus.
12 — Risk register
Hydrogen blend performance & fuel cost
On-demand generation avoids stored-hydrogen inventory risk; the station runs on diesel at any blend ratio, so no step depends on a fixed hydrogen fraction.
CO₂ offtake market depth in-state
High-density dry ice pellets anchor the offtake, with greenhouse aqueous CO₂ as the second market; revert recovery reduces losses so volume is not exposed to beverage-grade demand.
Plantation yield & rotation timing
Sustained-yield model with residual-only fallback for biochar; EWP throughput sized below inventory growth.
Water availability on leeward Kohala
Closed-loop design plus flue-gas condensate recovery reduces make-up demand to a fraction of open-cycle equivalents.
Permitting and community acceptance
Early, continuous engagement; environmental review scoped for the integrated campus rather than pillar-by-pillar.