Ahead of the Curve: Refiners Retrofit for Renewable Diesel Fuel

by Dan Crummett (Farm Equipment) ... Late in 2020, CVR Energy’s board of directors approved a $110 million renovation to a small Southern Oklahoma refinery near Wynnewood, which will leverage unused refining capacity (created as gasoline demand moderated) to begin producing so-called “renewable diesel” fuel. The repurposed use of a hydro-cracker and hydrogen plant will allow CVR to produce 90-million gallons of profitable low-carbon renewable diesel per year, along with an additional 10 million gallons of industrial naphtha.

Renewable diesel is chemically the same as petroleum diesel fuel but in the CVR refinery, and a number of others across the U.S., it is largely produced from soybean oil processing byproducts, animal fat wastes and used vegetable oil from the restaurant trade. It can also be produced from cellulosic biomass materials such as wood chips, sawdust, switchgrass and other crop residues.

Renewable diesel is classified as a low-carbon fuel because tests have shown it can reduce carbon emissions in diesel engine exhaust by as much as 50-80%.

Since renewable diesel also meets the ASTM International specifications for petroleum diesel it can be co-mingled in existing storage tanks and pipelines, and is termed a “drop in” fuel because it burns identically to petroleum diesel in compression-ignited engines. Unlike bio-diesel, renewable diesel requires no blending before it can enter end-user markets or fuel injectors.

The CVR project, at 100 million gallons per year, and a similar upgrade being planned by HollyFrontier Corp. are dwarfed by Valero Energy Corp., which plans to be producing 675 million gallons of renewable diesel at its upgraded Louisiana refinery by the middle of 2021. Valero is also studying an additional 400 million gallons of capacity for a Texas refinery it owns. Similarly, Phillips 66 is projected to produce about 800 million gallons of the fuel by 2022 at a refinery it is currently refurbishing.

Market watchers say U.S. agriculture likely will benefit from future environmental regulations on transportation and industrial fuels. In the meantime, the industry will have to develop logistical systems to supply the waste feedstocks to refineries capable of converting them into marketable fuel.

Still, Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum is optimistic and says, “As long as we grow soybeans and produce livestock, the waste derived after these products have been processed into food can be refined into a clean, low-carbon fuel.” READ MORE