Oberon Fuels Combats Covid-19 Economy with New Hires, Renewable DME Facility Upgrades

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) ... In comes news of public-private investments, rural economic development and employment, and even human health. With two new executive position veteran hires, up to 8 new plant managers, and putting to use a $2.9 million 2019 grant from the California Energy Commission, how their renewable DME can even help tackle human health and COVID-19, it’s a story to raise the spirits.

Making a conscious choice to push forward, despite the uncertainty of COVID-19, Oberon Fuels is fueling hope with the hiring of two veterans – one a veteran of oil & gas and renewable project development, and the other a veteran of the U.S. Navy, with deep experience in operations and program management. They also will be adding up to 8 plant managers beginning this summer and even better, these will be family-wage jobs in a part of California where the unemployment rate hit 20% (and that was before ‘Rona Cyclona hit).

How about that? A company creating jobs in the biofuels industry when many are unable to and plant upgrades for first-ever U.S. production of Renewable DME (rDME) fuel. Add to that a fuel that generates zero soot and particulate matter, which Harvard just determined as being a significant factor in advancing respiratory diseases like Covid-19, and you’ve got an interesting story.

Who is Oberon Fuels?

California-based Oberon Fuels, a producer of clean-burning dimethyl ether (DME) transportation fuel, monetizes biogas and industrial waste streams by converting these feedstocks into higher valued commodities. Using its proprietary small-scale process, Oberon makes DME (dimethyl ether) from methane, carbon dioxide, and/or methanol. In 2013, Oberon Fuels’ pilot plant in Brawley, California, produced the first fuel-grade DME in North America, which has been used by Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks and Ford Motor Company for vehicle demonstrations around the world.

By making automation, design, and other system changes, Oberon expects the production capacity to double compared to current stable production volumes, as well as to be able to use a new by-product from the paper industry to produce the fuel.

This project unlocks the near- and medium-term decarbonization benefits of rDME, an economical fuel and key step in the development of a California-based, renewable hydrogen (rH2) pathway to zero-emission mobility.

This project is a key building block to statewide production of rDME from California’s methane, removing this potent greenhouse gas from waste streams and converting it to an ultra-low carbon or carbon-negative transportation fuel. Beyond this project, these technology enhancements will be leveraged into Oberon’s first commercial-scale facility converting dairy biogas to rDME. Oberon can then replicate its initial commercial production facility for statewide rollout of rDME production facilities. These commercial plants will convert in-state methane emissions from dairy manure, food waste, and agricultural waste to rDME.

Project partners and subcontractors include Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (Al-Pac); CALSTART;Dynalectric – San Diego; EFR Environmental Services, Inc.; ETX, LLC a subsidiary of El Toro Export, LLC; Martin Transport; Northern Alberta Institute of Technology; Parafour Innovations; Performance Mechanical Contractors; Prins, a subsidiary of Westport Fuel Systems; Roddey Engineering; and SHV Energy. The CEC funding was a key milestone in the company subsequently securing a strategic partnership and investment from SHV Energy, the world’s leading distributor of propane.

And while most of the focus on DME has been on its application as a diesel fuel replacement, it can also serve as both a cost-effective, easy-to-transport hydrogen carrier and as a blending agent with propane to reduce propane’s carbon intensity when DME is made from renewable feedstocks. DME’s easy handling properties also make fueling and infrastructure relatively simple and inexpensive. Since rDME is an efficient hydrogen carrier, rDME can be transported to a hydrogen fueling station and then converted to renewable hydrogen to fuel zero-emission vehicles.

With only a 20 percent blend of dairy manure-based rDME, propane’s carbon intensity (CI) value is reduced from 82 to 10. With over 4,000 vehicles, including school buses, police cars, and shuttles, running on propane in California, rDME offers the potential to significantly reduce overall GHG emissions.

DME is approved as a renewable fuel under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuels Standard, making it eligible for D-3 and D-5 RINs credits when made from biogas by the Oberon process. California Air Resources Board (CARB) has estimated that dairy manure converted to DME by the Oberon process has a CI of -278 gCO2e/MJ compared to ultra-low-sulfur diesel which has a CI of 100 gCO2e/MJ. You can read about what those numbers really mean and how impressive of a carbon score this really is here.

Recent research from Harvard’s school of health has connected a higher rate of susceptibility to Covid-19 and other respiratory issues stemming from particulate matter from diesel engines. Oberon’s fuel, a diesel substitute, eliminates particulate emissions. READ MORE