Kinder Morgan Inc. on April 3 announced the full commercial in-service of its Southern and Northern California renewable diesel (RD) hub projects. RD is an alternative fuel that allows trucks, trains and any equipment that uses diesel to operate with significantly lower life-cycle emissions. Now in full operation, Kinder Morgan’s RD hubs are the most efficient and least carbon intensive method of transporting this lower emissions fuel from the Los Angeles refinery basin to San Diego and the Inland Empire and from the San Francisco Bay area to Sacramento, San Jose and Fresno. The initial phases of both hubs are fully subscribed with customer commitments.

“We are very pleased to be advancing California’s climate goals through our Southern and Northern California RD hubs,” said KMI’s President of Products Pipelines Dax Sanders. “These projects present a significant opportunity to participate in the transition to lower emissions energy sources of the future while continuing to provide fuels still in demand today. We are confident that the best way to serve markets during this energy evolution is through an all-of-the-above energy mix. Pipelines continue to be the safest and most cost-efficient mode of long-haul transportation for liquid fuels.”

The Southern California hub, which provides a throughput of up to 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) of blended diesel across the two inland destination truck racks, has been delivering RD to San Diego since the beginning of February 2023, with deliveries to Colton recently commencing. The Southern California hub connects marine supplies of RD coming into the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the Los Angeles market via the truck rack at SFPP’s Carson Terminal and to KMI’s SFPP pipeline system for delivery to the Inland Empire and San Diego areas.

The Northern California hub, which provides a throughput in aggregate of 21,000 bpd of RD via the SFPP northern pipeline system from the San Francisco Bay area to KMI’s Bradshaw, Fresno and San Jose terminals, is now commencing movement of RD to those markets. KMI capitalized on existing infrastructure for the Northern California hub, with potential capacity expansions available in subsequent phases.