Pacific Biodiesel Inc. has won the venture capital Deal of the Year award from the Hawaii Venture Capital Association for its fundraising efforts to expand to the Big Island with a biofuel plant.

The Kahului-based company founded by Kelly and Bob King, has plants on Maui and O'ahu among the 10 plants it has built in the U.S. and Japan. The company was the first to operate a retail biodiesel pump in the U.S.

Its technology involves processing fats, oils, greases and other waste into biodiesel. Pacific Biodiesel's Mainland partners include entertainer Willie Nelson as well as several NBA coaches, including Maui resident Don Nelson.

Deal of the Year runner-up honors went to ClearFuels Technology Inc., another biofuel company that's beginning to make headlines with a process for producing biofuel from agricultural waste.

Honorable mention went to Hawaii Angels, an investment network for seed-level private equity investors.

AIRLINE'S 1ST AIRBUS 330 ARRIVES MONDAY

Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Mark Dunkerley will lead a group of about 200 airline employees, musicians and dancers to Toulouse, France, for a ceremony tomorrow marking Hawaiian's first long-range Airbus A330-200 jet.

The aircraft will then be flown back to Honolulu where it is scheduled to arrive Monday.

The jet, one of 10 new Airbus A330-200 aircraft being acquired by Hawaiian, is scheduled to go into service in early June on the airline's Los Angeles-to-Honolulu route.

RISING SUN COFFEE RECOGNIZED AT CUPPING

Coffee from the Rising Sun plantation in Ka'ū on the Big Island was one of nine brews recognized at a Specialty Coffee Association of America cupping competition recently.

The organization awarded nine specialty coffees with the "Coffees of the Year" title at its 2010 Roasters Guild Coffees of the Year Competition April 16 to 18 in Anaheim, Calif.

"SCAA cupped, evaluated and ranked some of the finest specialty coffees from a geographically diverse range of coffee producers, and nine distinct coffees were selected as the leaders of this prestigious competition," the organization said in a news release.