2020 Biodiesel Plant Map Reflections

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) Biodiesel Magazine highlights industry changes as discovered during the 2020 U.S. & Canada Biodiesel Plant Map data collection efforts. ... Naturally, one recurring theme that kept rearing its ugly head was the toll that the lack of the $1 per gallon federal biodiesel tax credit, which expired at the end of 2017, and the U.S. EPA’s small refinery exemptions were having on the industry. Many producers had already announced plant closures, including three of World Energy’s sites in Georgia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania; Renewable Energy Group’s New Boston, Texas, plant; two of W2Fuel’s facilities in Michigan and Iowa; Duonix (the Beatrice, Nebraska-based joint venture between Flint Hills Resources and Benefuel); and later, after our map efforts for the year had concluded, Integrity Biofuels in Indiana.

Others yet, like American GreenFuels in New Haven, Connecticut, owned by Kolmar Americas, publicly announced significant cutbacks to production. There were numerous producers Biodiesel Magazine spoke with that were on the verge of idling production, many of which had already made the tough decision to begin manufacturing at only a fraction of their capacity, due to the ongoing policy issues facing the biodiesel industry.

Years ago, Biodiesel Magazine made the conscious decision not to list whether a biodiesel plant was producing or idled, or at what level of production they were achieving if, indeed, they were producing at any given time. Due to the fickle nature of this industry, and the historic tie between production levels and federal policies such as the tax credit and Renewable Fuel Standard volumes, it was thought best to only list installed capacities—what a plant could produce given the right market signals—at existing assets and those under construction or expansion. Thus, unless the companies that own these known, idled assets divest themselves of these facilities, they will continue to be listed on the plant map.

The 2019 map featured 10 biodiesel plants in Canada with 663 million liters of existing capacity and 45 million liters under construction or expansion. The 2020 map features nine biodiesel plants in Canada with nearly 598 million liters of existing capacity and 126 million liters under construction or expansion.

Renewable Diesel
The most striking trend when comparing the 2019 map to the latest iteration is the growth of U.S. renewable diesel projects. Out of six renewable diesel listings on the 2019 map, the only construction or expansion project was Diamond Green Diesel’s project in Norco, Louisiana, to move from 160 to 275 MMgy. Since the 2019 map was published in Fall 2018, that project had since been completed and the company nearly immediately undertook another major expansion, from 275 to 675 MMgy. Other than the World Energy Paramount (at 40 MMgy) facility in California and REG’s Geismar, Louisiana, plant (75 MMgy), the other renewable diesel plants on the 2019 map were rather small. This changed, however, in 2020.

Ryze Renewables has two projects under construction. One is at the old site of Biodiesel of Las Vegas in Nevada, at 100 MMgy. The other is near Reno, Nevada, and is scaled at 50 MMgy.

Marathon Petroleum is also well underway with Phase 2 of its renewable diesel project in Dickinson, North Dakota. Phase 1 was coprocessing vegetable oils with crude oil feedstock, but Phase 2 is complete conversion of the oil refinery to produce renewable diesel at a scale of 184 MMgy. According to Ron Day with the refinery, full conversion is expected to be complete by late 2020.

In late October 2018, World Energy announced a $350 million expansion project at Paramount over the next two years, to complete conversion of this former oil refinery to produce more than six times the volume of renewable fuels the 40 MMgy renewable diesel and biojet plant could previously produce. The plan is to produce 300 MMgy of renewable diesel, biojet fuel, green gasoline and renewable propane.

All told, nearly 1 billion additional gallons of renewable diesel capacity growth is under construction in the U.S. (see chart) year over year. There are many more proposed renewable diesel projects in development, and the 2021 map is sure to reflect this. READ MORE