The Renewing of Nevada Renewable fuels and the Rise of Ryze Renewables

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Nevada, Ryze Renewables has two new renewable diesel projects totaling $250M now in planning for the Nevada and Las Vegas areas.

This project is bigger: equipment costs have grown from $44 million to $73 million, and capacity has expanded to 60 million gallons per year; however, the project will also employ 67 employees, and the company projected an average hourly rate of $26.16.

Documents filed with the city of Las Vegas reveal that “Ryze Renewables Las Vegas, LLC plans to acquire and repurpose an existing biodiesel processing facility located in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The plant is not currently producing fuel, but has extensive existing infrastructure,” and that “a major fuel company has agreed to purchase the entirety of the Renewable Diesel produced at this facility to sell into the southern California market.”

The Las Vegas application states that the company “is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2018,” and the company said that it has a target date for the physical move into the former biodiesel facility in Q3 2017.

Good news for that project in the meantime, the state Office of Economic Development has green-lighted $9.4 million in tax abatements for the Las Vegas project.

Ryze said in project-related documentation that it would “manufacture 100% renewable diesel which is converted from distiller’s corn oil, esters, fatty acids or other nonfood renewable feedstock. The company’s process utilizes a unique patented technology that introduces hydrogen within a hydrotreating reactor more efficiently than competing technologies. This allows the company to use feedstocks that have a better Carbon intensity value than the ones used by other processes.”

We noted that the company proposes to produce renewable diesel with a 72 cetane value. That’s sky high. There’s lots to like about that — a cetane value of 55 is generally considered top of the line, but Fischer-Tropsch diesels are often seen in this range, according to the Fuels and Lubricants Handbook. from ASTM.

According to FarmWeekNow: “A high-cetane diesel fuel provides more complete combustion, improved cold starts, less engine noise and knocking, reduced white smoke and warm-up time, fewer misfires, lower exhaust emissions: nitrogen oxide, hydro carbon, carbon monoxide, and sometimes particulate matter.”