Imperial to invest in new HVO complex in Canada

In Brief

USA: US renewable diesel producer Diamond Green Diesel (DGD) has been given the go-ahead for a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project at its Port Arthur plant in Texas.

Due to become operational in 2025, the US$315M project at the Port Arthur plant would have the capability to upgrade approximately 50% of its current 1.7bn litres (470M gallons)/ year production capacity to SAF, Darling Ingredients said on 31 January.

DGD is a 50/50 joint venture between global renderer Darling Ingredients and Valero Energy Corporation, a petroleum refiner and renewable fuels producer.

USA: Finnish renewable fuels producer Neste said on 13 January that it had completed its acquisition of Crimson Renewable Energy’s used cooking oil (UCO) collection and aggregation business in the USA, which included shares in SeQuential Environmental Services and Pure, as well as a UCO processing plant in Salem, Oregon.

Through the transaction, Neste said it had acquired a leading UCO collection and recycling business on the US West Coast, covering the collection, logistics and storage of UCO in California, Oregon and Washington.

Leading Canadian petroleum refiner Imperial announced on 26 January that it is set to go ahead with a US$560M (CA$720M) investment in a renewable diesel complex at its Strathcona refinery near Edmonton.

The facility would produce more than 1bn litres/year of renewable diesel (hydrotreated vegetable oil – HVO) once operational.

“We are making investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations and to help customers reduce their emissions,” said Imperial chairman and CEO Brad Corson.

First announced in August 2021, a significant portion of the renewable diesel from the project would be supplied to

British Columbia province.

The HVO facility would use low-carbon hydrogen produced with carbon capture and storage technology.

Imperial had also entered into an agreement with Air Products for low-carbon hydrogen supply and was developing deals with other third parties for bio-feedstock supply, it said.

Initial construction was underway, with renewable diesel production expected to start in 2025.

Bunge to build new soya protein plant in USA

Global agribusiness giant Bunge is planning to invest around US$550M in a new soyabean protein concentrate (SPC) plant in Morristown, Indiana, USA.

The SPC and textured soyabean protein concentrate (TSPC) facility would meet rising customer demand for key ingredients in the production of plant-based foods, processed meat, pet food and feed products, Bunge said on 15

December. Commissioning of the facility, which would be integrated with Bunge’s soyabean processing plant in Indiana, was in mid-2025.

Once operational, the new plant was expected to lead to the processing of an additional 4.5M bushels/year of soyabeans and add scale, efficiencies and non-GMO capability to the company’s existing US-based conventional SPC and TSPC operation in Bellevue, Ohio, Bunge said.

EcoCeres to build second biofuel unit

Hong Kong start-up EcoCeres has announced plans to build a second plant to turn waste oil and water into low-carbon fuel for aircraft and cars, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on 2 February.

Expected to take about two years to complete, the proposed plant in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, would produce around 350,000 tonnes/year of biofuels from used cooking oil (UCO) and palm oil mill wastewater, the report said.

“Now that our first plant in China is performing well, we are designing our second plant in Malay- sia, which will soon proceed to the construction phase,” EcoCeres co-founder and CEO Philip Siu Kam-shing told the SCMP

EcoCeres, a business unit of local energy supplier Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas), operates a waste oil processing plant in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, China, which produces 100,000 tonnes/year of sustainable aviation fuel and 200,000 tonnes/year of renewable diesel. The plant, which started commercial operation in early 2021, delivered all of its current production to the European market, the SCMP wrote.