HILO >> The varroa mite parasite that’s been killing bees across the country is spreading on the Big Island, threatening local fruit and macadamia nut industries.

The tiny, parasitic bug has escaped a quarantine area around Hilo and spread to Hamakua and Puna.

On the mainland, the varroa mite has destroyed more than half of some beekeepers’ hives and devastated most wild honeybee populations.

Mainland bees have also been hit by another illness called colony collapse disorder, which causes adult bees to abandon their hives.

Hawaii’s first varroa mite was found in 2007 on Oahu, where it is now widely established.

The mites breed in the bees’ hives, living off their blood. The mites weaken the bees, allowing other viruses and diseases to kill them.

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The shell of a macadamia nut is extremely hard and has no obvious practical use.

But a new Big Island venture hopes to crack that problem by converting tons of macadamia nut shells into granular activated carbon for air and water filters, and even a type of bio-fuel.

The company, Big Island Carbon LLC, plans to break ground next month on construction of a $20 million plant in Kaie Hana Industrial Park at Kawaihae. Gov. Linda Lingle has been invited to attend the ceremony.

Chief executive officer Rick Vidgen said his company has signed a 55-year lease with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for the 13-acre lot near Kawaihae Harbor.

“We have worked long and hard to bring Big Island Carbon’s plant to reality,” Vidgen said. “The plant will help to diversify the island’s economy, create new high tech jobs, support agriculture, and be green in the process.”

Currently, macadamia nut shells are collected in big piles, and then burned in open fields or trucked to landfills. Nut farmers now spend $5 a ton to dispose of the material, but Vidgen said he plans to buy the shells for $10 per ton.

The shells have properties — they are dense and contain small pores — that could be put to good use as filtering material. But first, they have to be processed.

Vidgen’s facility will crush and burn them in a special, airless process that results in a type of charcoal that weighs 10 to 15 percent of the shells’ original weight. Next, the charcoal passes through a $2.5 million custom-built kiln that will produce granular activated charcoal that can be used in air and water filtration systems.

The company also has been approached about using the activated carbon in a nylon suit for emergency personnel that respond to accidental or deliberate chemical releases, Vidgen said.

Pharmaceutical, environmental, military and other buyers already are showing interest in the product, he added.

The manufacturing process also will produce an oil that can be utilized to fuel the plant’s furnaces and may later be sold for use for other applications, Vidgen said.

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Big Island Carbon LLC’s $20 million plant is planned for a four-acre parcel of land in the Kaie Hana Industrial Park in Kawaihae leased from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The project is being funded by Denham Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on energy.

The project is expected to employ 100 construction workers during the 10-month construction phase, and will employ about 30 people at full build-out.

The company will buy the discarded nut shells from local growers. The carbon to be produced by the plant can be used in a variety of filtration devices, including air and water filters.

“This is an ideal industry that will provide quality year-round employment unrelated to the cycles of tourism while supporting agriculture with a positive cash flow to the struggling macadamia industry,” said CEO Rick Vidgen. “Big Island Carbon’s plant will help to diversify the island’s economy, create new high tech jobs, support agriculture, and be ‘green’ in the process.”

Source: Pacific Business News