BP Completes Renewable Diesel Coprocessing Expansion Project in Washington

by Ron Kotrba (Biobased Diesel Daily) BP has completed the expansion of its renewable diesel coprocessing capacity at the company’s Cherry Point refinery in Washington state.

The refinery has doubled its renewable diesel capacity and is now able to coprocess nearly 110 million gallons of renewable diesel per year from feedstocks such as waste vegetable oil and animal fats.

This upgrade is expected to reduce the CO2 emissions resulting from the diesel produced at BP’s Cherry Point refinery by up to 600,000 tons per year—the equivalent of taking around 130,000 cars off the road.
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BP first announced the expansion of renewable diesel coprocessing at Cherry Point in the fall of 2021. The endeavor is one of three upgrades to the facility totaling $269 million, including a $169 million hydrocracker improvement project and a $55 million cooling water infrastructure project. READ MORE

Excerpt from Biofuels Central: Nearly two hour’s drive from Seattle and just south of the US-Canadian border, Cherry Point is the Pacific Northwest’s largest refinery, capable of processing approximately a quarter-million barrels of crude oil each day on average – much of it from North America.

Since opening in 1971, Cherry Point has mainly produced traditional fossil-based fuels. In fact, it provides much of the jet fuel used at the Seattle-Tacoma and Vancouver international airports.

In 2018, Cherry Point began producing renewable fuels with lower lifecycle emissions than traditional fuels. Part of this was driven by policy: Washington state, California, Oregon and British Columbia have all passed initiatives to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by up to 20%. All of this has set the stage for accelerating the production of biofuels, partly through something called “co-processing.”

In co-processing, the refinery uses conventional crude oil along with biomass-based feedstocks, like food waste and beef tallow, to produce a blended fuel. It’s also one of the most efficient ways to reduce a fuel’s lifecycle emissions: co-processed renewable diesel can reduce the fuel’s carbon intensity by up to 30% compared with regular, fossil fuel-created diesel.

“This work shows the important role refining can play in helping both bp and the world to reach net zero.”

Cherry Point is tapping into its existing infrastructure to help meet this demand: The refinery’s processing unit, which already makes fossil-based diesel, has been able to transition over to co-processing.

bp is involved in each stage of the process, from feedstock to end product. This lends the company tremendous technical and commercial advantages because we choose and purchase the feedstock, then process, distribute and sell the fuel.

Cherry Point now has the capability to co-process more than 7,000 barrels of renewable diesel fuel each day, about 2.6 million barrels each year. And it’s a drop-in fuel, meaning truck drivers can use it without any changes to the fleet.

1. Identify the right feedstock

bp’s co-processing journey begins with choosing a feedstock. When Cherry Point first co-processed in 2018, the refinery started with beef tallow – which comes from slaughterhouses and rendering facilities. Today, Cherry Point also co-processes used cooking oil, canola oil, soybean oil and byproducts from the ethanol industry, among other materials.

2. Fuel is processed – and impurities removed

One of the refinery’s processing units – its hydrotreater – processes the renewable feedstocks alongside the conventional petroleum feedstocks.

One pipe brings in the traditional fossil feedstock, while another brings in the tallow or other bio-feedstock. Both fuels are then mixed before the system adds hydrogen at an elevated temperature to remove impurities – mostly sulfur.

The end product is a high-quality fuel that’s chemically identical to a diesel product made only through fossil fuels.

3. Distribute – and sell – low-carbon fuel

bp uses barges, ships, pipes, trains and trucks to distribute its fuel all over the US.

When bp sells co-processed renewable diesel fuel at company-owned brands like TravelCenters of America, it’s a key example of an integrated energy company in action. It’s also one of the reasons bp bought TA in 2023 – along with the fact that the TravelCenters brand gives the company access to 300 locations strategically placed along major US highways. READ MORE