Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 19 to celebrate the delivery of the first seed oil feedstock for the production of renewable diesel at its refinery in Great Falls, Montana.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte attended the event. “We just started offloading canola oil that will be transformed into diesel fuel,” Gianforte said in a video posted to Twitter. “This is a low-carbon fuel that is good for Montana agriculture, its good for jobs here in Cascade County—everybody is winning.”  

Calumet in February 2021 announced plans to produce renewable diesel at its petroleum refinery in Great Falls. At that time, the company said it planned to reconfigure its oversized hydrocracker to process 10,000 to 12,000 barrels per day of renewable feedstock. The following month, Calumet discussed plans to complete the conversion with the support of an equity investor.

During a second quarter earnings call held Aug. 6, Steve Mawer, CEO of Calumet, discussed the possibility of de-bottlenecking the oversized hydrocracker to expand renewable diesel production to 18,000 barrels per day. He also discussed feedstock procurement, noting that initial supply agreements for start-up are focused on soybean oil and tallow. He also discussed the potential to use canola oil as feedstock at the facility.

Conversion of the Great Falls refinery is currently expected to be complete next year, with operations scheduled to begin during the second quarter of 2022.