About us
Aloha Carbon is a innovative process and technology developed by Simonpietri Enterprises LLC – a Hawaii-based, woman-owned, sustainably-driven, small business providing renewable fuels and innovative solutions to waste management challenges.
Our approach is to focus on the future, aligning innovations in technology across supply chains, building systems that solve big problems- contributing to better business results and a better world.
News
READ
Oahu’s Construction Waste Could Become Food For Crops At A New Kapolei Facility
Joelle Simonpietri and her crew are clearing invasive flora, concrete detritus and derelict concrete – making machinery from a property in Kapolei that they hope will eventually close the loop on a significant portion of Oahu’s unrecycled waste.
Simonpietri Enterprises Awarded Federal Grant for Fertilizer Made from Fire-Prone Invasive Plants
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Simonpietri Enterprises LLC a $206,500 grant to conduct research on producing organic fertilizer from locally-sourced green waste and wildfire-prone invasive plant biomass.
READ MORE HERE
New contract for engineering toward waste wood-to-electricity plant in Hawaii
EQTEC, a global technology innovator powering distributed, decarbonized, new energy infrastructure through its waste-to-value solutions for hydrogen, biofuels, and energy generation, is pleased to announce that it has signed a technical services agreement for engineering services with Simonpietri Enterprises LLC.
READ MORE HERE
Central pacific bank foundation announces new cohort for entrepreneurship program
The Central Pacific Bank Foundation recently announced the third cohort for its “Women Entrepreneurs by Rising Tide” program.
READ MORE HERE
Editorial: Hawaii a good fit for hydrogen fuel
Hydrogen fuel is a clean-burning source of energy, and can be created from existing construction waste, agricultural byproducts and other organic materials. It can be used to power cars — and airplanes.
READ MORE HERE
Watch
Empowered hawaii: TOmorrow’s Tourism
Learn how Aloha Carbon is planning to reduce Hawaii’s landfilled waste while helping to pave the way for a more sustainable tourism industry in Hawaii. WATCH HERE or click on the video.
focused on local sustainability
Our mission is to do something better with waste than to dispose of it in landfills. The Aloha Carbon project was created to help Hawaii’s energy transition to climate-friendlier bioenergy options, by delivering waste management solutions that reduce dependency on fossil fuels. We are the recyclers of what cannot be recycled!
We focus on our biggest local needs, which have the least amounts of solutions: finding alternate uses for construction and demolition debris(C&D) and organic urban wastes, and converting them into green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
DivertING waste from landfills
Company identity
What we do:
Waste Diversion
Similar to recycling, where materials are used in a new way, waste diversion makes use of materials away from landfills.
gasification
Gasification can also be used to process waste, but it is a chemical process instead of a combustion process. This difference allows for higher emission controls. Unlike incineration, there is potential for gasification to deliver negative Green house gas (GHG) emissions.
Carbon-Neutral Growth
Aloha Carbon is aiming to help airlines serving Hawaii meet their goals of carbon-neutral growth. This includes producing renewable fuel and carbon credits that meet the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) requirements to hold lifecyle greenhouse gas emissions at 2020 levels – including flights to and from Hawai`i.
What we do not do:
Throw away waste
A landfill should be the final stop for waste after all recycling options have been exhausted. When landfills are full, new sites need to be created, which can affect local communities.
incineration
Incineration is to burn something completely and reduce it to ashes. An incinerator is a device that directly “burns” feedstock, and is a form of processing waste. There are over 50 incinerators in the US.
carbon-Intensive growth
We aim to reduce carbon-intensive economic development by displacing fossil fuel, raw material imports, and greenhouse-gas intensive cement and building materials, with careful sorting and recycling of waste into locally sourced building materials and energy products.
Greenhouse gas comparison for hydrogen
MEET OUR TEAM
Joelle Simonpietri
President
Founder Joelle Simonpietri led the internal Innovation Team and renewable fuel manufacturing integration initiatives at Par Pacific Inc’s Hawaii petroleum refinery for over 2 years. Ms. Simonpietri was the investment lead for the Waste Management corporation (NYSE: WM) waste-to-energy, waste gasification, and value-added recycled product investments, and interim CEO for an algae aquaculture company. A Navy veteran, she was previously a Department of Defense (DOD) Science and Technology program manager for renewable fuels and gasification procurement programs. Through her work at DOD, she facilitated the scope of work, design basis, and initial Defense Production Act funding of Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining™ Renewable Diesel hydrotreating process and its first commercial plant, now the World Fuels Paramount renewable jet production plant in Los Angeles California.
Aaron Ellis
Director of Finance
Aaron brings financial management, planning, modeling, and accounting with ten years of experience in the sustainable agriculture and renewable energy sector. He previously served as the CFO of Kalona Brand Cocoa, Director of Business Development at landscaping and agriculture firm Pono Pacific; and Financial Analyst at impact investment fund Ulupono Initiative.
Michael Turina
Senior Project Engineer
Mike is a licensed professional engineer in Hawaii with over 40 years’ experience designing and executing capital projects in the energy industry at Par Pacific, Tesoro, and BHP. He was the lead project engineer at Par Hawaii Refinery for all of their new units and upgrades. Mike was the supervising engineer for the construction of the Distillate Hydrotreating (DHT) unit at Par Hawaii that our green hydrogen would supply.
jody Allione
Director of Project Development
Jody has over 30 years of experience developing first-of-kind and commercial energy projects using solar, biomass, waste, and fossil fuel resources in Hawaii and CONUS for AES Solar, Innergex, NextEra Energy Resources, UPC Solar, Recurrent Energy, Ulupono, & others. She was an Executive Committee member of the Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance (HREA) for 10 years, where she helped develop the Feed-In and Community Based Renewable Energy tariffs.
Jennifer Chinen
Environmental Engineering Technician
Jennifer graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and was previously an intern at SEL. Upon receiving her BS in Mechanical Engineering, she rejoined the company through the internship and workforce development program as an Environmental Engineering Technician, where she is the lead for the Environmental Assessment as well as planning and permitting tasks. She has assisted with real construction & demolition waste field observation in Hawaii and feedstock processing at WSU.
Zachary Wadas
Mechanical Engineering Technician
Zachary graduated from University of Hawaii at Manoa with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Zak has been working with Aloha Carbon since August of 2020 and has participated in two gasification trials on real world construction & demolition waste. He is the lead for waste feedstock sampling, processing and characterization to aide in the design and development of the Aloha Carbon gasification plant that will be based in Hawaii.
Naomi Kukac
Communications & Community Outreach
Naomi attended the University of Hawaii at West Oahu where she obtained a BBA with a focus in management. She brings with her ten years of management experience in the healthcare and service industries and serves as the lead for community engagement, outreach and education for the Aloha Carbon project.
Samantha Seligman
Sustainability Intern
Samantha graduated from UCLA with a BS in Biology and minor in Music History. She brings with her a diverse background from working Phase III cardiovascular research trials in Beverly Hills. She’s had an interest in sustainability since a young age, soldering solar cells together to create a homemade solar panel to power a flat iron. In her free she can be found SCUBA diving or riding her motorcycle.
Michael Wadas
Logistics Technician
Previous Sustainability interns
Centrie Carter
Engineering Intern
Hattachai Buttayotee
Engineering Intern
Jayden Marshall
Engineering Intern
Justin Cristobal
Engineering Intern
Isabel Schwartz
Engineering Intern
Our Advisors
Quinn Vittum
Executive Director
ReUse Hawai’i
miki’ala Lidstone
Executive Director
Ulu A’e Learning Center
Mahalo to our Partners
