Phillips 66's Renewable Fuel Refinery in CA Running at Full Capacity

Phillips 66 has completed the conversion of a former traditional refinery San Francisco, California, into a renewable diesel production facility.

The Rodeo Renewable Energy Complex has now fully ramped up production to 50,000 barrels per day (bpd). Houston, Texas-based Phillips 66 had put the new facility into service in the first quarter at an output rate of 30,000 bpd.

“The Rodeo complex includes new pre-treatment units that process lower carbon intensity feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, fats, greases and vegetable oil”, Phillips 66 said in a statement. The facility caters to the West Coast market.

“The facility running at full capacity supports the growing demand for renewable fuels, lowers our carbon footprint and creates long-term value for our shareholders”, Rich Harbison, Phillips 66 executive vice president for refining, commented.

When announcing the start of renewable diesel production last April 1, Phillips 66 also said the converted refinery could start producing renewable jet fuel by June 2024.

The project, according to Phillips 66, is one of the world’s biggest renewable fuel refineries. “As a world-class supplier of renewable fuels, the converted facility leverages a premium geographic location, unique processing infrastructure and flexible logistics to significantly reduce lifecycle carbon emissions”, Phillips 66 previously said.

Most of domestically produced and imported renewable diesel are consumed in California due to the requirements of the state’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard, according to the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The department defines renewable diesel as “a fuel made from fats and oils, such as soybean oil or canola oil, and is processed to be chemically the same as petroleum diesel”.

The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that as of January 2023 the country had an annual capacity of 196,000 bpd to produce renewable diesel and other biofuels. There were 17 renewable diesel and biofuel plants at the time, according to the EIA.

However, the U.S. has the available feedstock resources to triple its biomass energy production capacity to 1.1 billion–1.5 billion metric tons yearly, according to a new analysis commissioned by the DOE that identified several new feedstocks.

The potential capacity is equivalent to 60 billion gallons of renewable-carbon liquid fuels and could satisfy the demand for flight fuel in the U.S., according to the study conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on behalf of the DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office.

The study, the fourth of a series of assessments on biomass energy potential in the U.S. since 2005, analyzed the capacity of about 60 potential biomass energy sources, several of which have been included only now.

The newly identified feedstocks include winter oilseed crops, trees and brush taken from forests to prevent wildfires, macroalgae and carbon dioxide from industrial plants.

“The report finds that the wide dispersion and variety of these resources will ensure that the benefits of expanded biomass production extend to both rural and urban areas”, the DOE said in a statement March 15, 2024.

The new assessment raises the potential capacity from the one billion metric tons per annum identified by the previous “Bio-Ton Report”, published July 2016.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com