Phillips 66 begins commercial operations at Rodeo biorefinery
April 2, 2024
BY Erin Voegele
Phillips 66 on April 1 announced that its Rodeo refinery in San Francisco has commenced commercial production of renewable diesel. The facility is expected to begin producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) components during the second quarter of this year.
The company in May 2022 made a final investment decision to convert the Rodeo refinery to renewables. At that time Phillips 66 explained that the scope of the project includes the construction of pre-treatment units and the repurposing of existing hydrocracking units to enable production of renewable fuels
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The converted facility,referred to as the Rodeo Renewable Energy Complex, is now processing only renewable feedstocks and producing approximately 30,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel, according to Phillips 66. The biorefinery is on track to ramp up production rates to nameplate capacity of more than 800 MMgy (50,000 barrels per day) by the end of the second quarter. In addition to renewable diesel, the Rodeo Renewed project is also designed to produce renewable jet, a key component of SAF. Production of that product is expected to begin during the second quarter, the company said in its April 1 announcement.
“We are proud to announce this significant achievement at our Rodeo facility,” said Rich Harbison, Phillips 66 executive vice president of Refining. “The project advances Phillips 66’s long-held strategy to expand our renewable fuels production, lower our carbon footprint, and provide reliable, affordable energy while creating long-term value for our shareholders.”
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“We’ve had strong execution to-date and are fully focused on finalizing the project in the second quarter,” he added.
Harbison discussed the Rodeo Renew project during the company’s second quarter earnings call, which was held on Jan. 31. At that time, Harbison said work on a feedstock pretreatment unit (PTU) was scheduled to be complete in April. He also discussed the types of feedstocks the biorefinery will process, noting the facility would likely start of processing “easier” feedstocks, such as vegetable oils, some used cooking oils and neat vegetable oils. Once the PTU is operational, the facility is expected to start introducing lower carbon intensity (CI) feedstocks, such as fats, greases and tallows. Company officials are expected to provide additional operational updates during its second quarter earnings call, which is currently scheduled to be held April 26.
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