The long and sometimes tortured path to the start of state's hydrogen fund may be coming to an end.

The state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism said it hopes to sign a contract soon, giving management of the $8.7 million fund to Kolohala Holdings LLP.

"We are perhaps days from having this thing in the can and open for business," said Ted Peck, chief of the state agency's Energy Planning and Policy Branch.

The contract signing has been more than two years in the making and included a controversy that erupted after DBEDT director Ted Liu awarded the contract to another bidder which had been ranked the lowest by an evaluation team. Kolohala had been ranked as the top bidder, and last September, the state Procurement Office ordered DBEDT to rescind its original award and give the contract to Kolohala.

Liu in February switched the award to Kolohala. Peck said the agreement took a long time to reach because of staffing issues, other renewable energy work being done by the unit and the fact that the contract is the first of its kind for the department.

"No one wants to put Kolohala in a bad position," said Peck. "No one wants to see the state just hand over the money and have no accountability for it."

Last week, one potential windfarm/hydrogen project developer said he hoped to apply for some of the money and told The Advertiser he didn't understand why the contract hadn't been funded. The fund was authorized by the state Legislature in 2006 to help finance companies trying to develop clean-burning hydrogen fuel from renewable resources.

Kolohala partner Michael Pfeffer said he has been working with the state on a draft contract and that this fell into the category of something taking longer than one hoped.

"It's more complicated than anyone thought it would be," Pfeffer said, noting the firm is hoping the money to fund a number of projects including those asking for seed money and venture investments and those involving cost sharing.

Even after the contract is signed, the program figures to make headlines. A state Senate investigation into contract procurement process is supposed to issue a final report summing up findings from more than 60 hours of hearings and review of 10,000 document pages.