A decade ago, the U.S. biodiesel and renewable diesel industry passed a significant milestone&mdash;crossing the billion-gallon production threshold. Within four years, the industry had doubled production, surpassing 2 billion gallons. This growth in production has enabled the industry to meet the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, while creating more job opportunities and building a solid foundation for sustainable fuel production into the future. Driven by a greater focus on federal and state targets and conversion of petroleum refineries to alternative fuel refining (including biodiesel and renewable diesel), U.S. production capacity is projected to increase into 2024. The future is bright for the biofuel and renewable diesel industry. As the industry continues this robust push to a more sustainable future&mdash;integrating biofuels and renewable fuels into the broader energy market&mdash;we create an energy transition, or a paradigm shift, into a more energy integrated future. With that, we must consider a pathway that ensures that this shift secures viable and affordable feedstock for sustained growth in the market that keeps pricing competitive. Enter hemp into this conversation. In the hemp industry, much anecdotal evidence is presented, with as much conjecture, as to hemp&rsquo;s potential as a biomass feedstock for a range of energy products, including biodiesel and renewable diesel. For several decades, hemp advocates have argued in support of hemp-based energy&mdash;ranging from pellets to advanced biofuels. If you have been in the hemp universe for exceptionally long, you have realized that hemp is both a functional and versatile plant. In 2013, Forbes Magazine ran a piece by Logan Yonavjak that stated hemp could produce approximately 25,000 products. But it likely also did not take long to realize that being in the hemp universe requires great focus to avoid being drawn off on many tangents when it comes to developing hemp-based products, including energy products. &nbsp;In 1990, investigative journalist Hugh Downs of ABC&rsquo;s 20/20 discussed the potential for hemp as a feedstock for energy. He found hemp could be used for energy production, such as methane, which can be readily refined to a synthesis biodiesel product, as well as biodiesel from the refined seed oil, a nearly sulfur-free product that is easily blended with petroleum diesel or used as 100% biofuel. In fact, Downs&rsquo;s report stated that hemp could account for up to 90% of world&rsquo;s energy needs, reducing reliance on petroleum-based fuels. Downs further said, &ldquo;When Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. Hemp is the most efficient vegetable. In the 1930s, Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant, that included hemp, at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl-acetate and creosote. All fundamental ingredients for modern industry and now supplied by oil-related industries.&rdquo; Besides the environmental benefits, being clean and cheap in their life cycle costs, biofuels have the obvious benefit of being renewable as opposed to petroleum-based fuels. Hemp&rsquo;s properties have the potential to spur tremendous biofuel production&mdash;especially biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Its per-acre yield of fiber and grain varieties, as well as its varietal adaptability to varying climates and soils, make the hemp plant a worthy candidate for consideration in the production of biofuels. It is this factor that makes hemp an attractive bioenergy crop. Its versatility aside, a key consideration in developing hemp as an input for energy production is the ability to generate revenue from multiple outputs. Whether using a fiber or grain variety, hemp can be effectively processed to produce dual revenues, such fiber for textiles or composite materials, materials for energy production, or grain for human or animal products and energy production. This strengthens the economic case for farmers, giving them two revenue benefits and not just one. The economic case is further strengthened when one considers the benefits that hemp brings to the carbon capture and sequestration market. The carbon capture properties of hemp have been shown to far exceed any of the more traditional pathways to the management of atmospheric carbon, as hemp exceeds trees in its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A November 2021 article published by the National Hemp Growers Cooperative discusses research at Cambridge University that shows that &ldquo;&hellip;hemp is twice as effective as trees in capturing atmospheric carbon, meaning the potential market for hemp as a crop that not only can produce sustainable materials and renewable energy but also for carbon sequestration is potentially better than other crops and trees.&rdquo;&nbsp; Darshil Shah, senior researcher at Cambridge University's Centre for National Material Innovation, has written numerous studies that suggest hemp is one of the best CO2-to-biomass converters. It absorbs between 8 and 15 tons of biomass per hectare (approximately 4 to 7.5 tons of CO2 per acre), depending on the variety of hemp and method in which it is cultivated. That is in comparison to forestry-based carbon capture, which typically captures between 2 and 6 tons of carbon per hectare (1 to 3 tons per acre), depending on the type of trees and growing conditions. If one accounts for the monetized value of managing atmospheric carbon, the farmer is benefitted even more in their activities. The &ldquo;layered approach&rdquo; to building revenue for the farmer is one that builds a stronger case for expansion of hemp production globally. The economic and environmental case for hemp is growing stronger. The efforts of Eureka Energy Corp.&nbsp; and the National Hemp Growers Cooperative in their recently announced strategic partnership are focused on strengthening rural economic development by working with hemp farmers in the U.S. and globally. As a company, Eureka is partnering with the NHGC to build a supply chain for hemp that leads to bioenergy production, focused on biodiesel and SAF. Our project development efforts currently are ongoing in Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Paraguay. The basis for this is the incorporation of hemp for biodiesel derived from renewable natural gas. &nbsp;Our business model focuses on building farming networks to supply facilities that process hemp for dual crops, such as fiber and grain use. The biomass byproducts range up to 80% of the overall yield per acre, to be gasified and refined into biodiesel or SAF. With duality in revenue and the addition of carbon credit monetization, farmers will realize robust revenue from their activities. It is our desire to build real wealth for farmers and aid in the restoration of rural economies, while fulfilling market demand for biofuels. Our commitment to creating a sustainable supply chain from seed to fuel is only enhanced by a front-end design of farming practices and plant operations that reduce carbon footprints and capture up to 100% of the CO2 being produced in the operations of our energy facilities. The future holds immense potential for bioenergy, especially biodiesel and SAF, and hemp will be a key component in that bioenergy future. Its crop yield, climate versatility and soil adaptability all make hemp a cash crop that can rebuild, restore and rejuvenate rural economies, make national energy consumption more independent and secure, and chart a course for the environment that ensures a more sustainable future.

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The future holds immense potential for bioenergy, especially biodiesel and SAF, and hemp will be a key component in that bioenergy future.

The Path Forward for Hemp Renewable Fuels

Armed with extensive experience in international plant construction and design, BDI-BioEnergy International GmbH has high standards when it comes to innovation, product quality and environmental values. With 70-plus projects globally and more than 320 patents, the Austria-based company says its tailor-made biodiesel plants produce high-quality fuel that meets the strictest standards. The company&rsquo;s range of offerings includes all key services for the customer, from the development of new processes, scale-up, front-end, basic and detail engineering to plant construction, as well as commissioning and training of plant operators. The cornerstone of the company&rsquo;s business model is its Repeatable Catalyst technology, or RepCAT, an environmentally friendly biodiesel manufacturing process with a recyclable catalyst. RepCAT: Recycling High-Risk Fats Like many of BDI&rsquo;s patented technologies, RepCAT is the result of long-term collaboration with local Styrian universities, which include the University of Technology in Graz and the University of Graz. Major benefits include utilization of a wide range of biodiesel feedstocks, including residual and waste materials; elimination of byproduct processing costs; as well as the ability to reuse catalysts, improving the quality of both the biodiesel and glycerin. &nbsp;In April 2021, the company reached a milestone regarding its technology: BDI&rsquo;s research team succeeded in gaining approval from European Food Safety Agency to use the RepCAT process for the utilization of high-risk fat materials, an achievement based on joint trials with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.&nbsp; Now, the RepCAT process can be used to produce high-quality biodiesel from highly contaminated animal fats that pose a risk to the environment. &ldquo;This success reflects our constant efforts to not only provide the best technical solution for our customers, but also to positively influence the economic framework of biodiesel production so that our customers can generate a market advantage over their competitors,&rdquo; says Markus Dielacher, BDI CEO. RetroFit: One-Stop-Shop for Plant Optimization In cases that a&nbsp; biodiesel plant was not engineered or built by BDI, they can still be optimized through the company&rsquo;s proprietary RetroFit program. BDI has performed dozens of retrofits across the world, plant optimization projects that involved numerous steps, from initial plant evaluation, cost estimates, pre-engineering and feasibility studies, to implementation, commissioning, and aftersales service. BDI is currently building three large-scale industrial biodiesel plants in the U.S. and Europe, which will be based on the RepCAT technology. One of those projects is Cargill&rsquo;s multiwaste- and residues-based biodiesel plant, located at its existing integrated oilseeds crush and Bioro biodiesel site in Gent, Belgium. The $150 million project will be the first plant in Europe capable of processing all types of liquid waste oils and fats, including byproducts from food processing and food industry waste. The plant will have a production capacity of 115,000 tons of biodiesel annually, and is scheduled to come online in June 2022. The ongoing development of new technologies has always been an essential component of BDI&rsquo;s corporate philosophy, and to further drive that initiative, the company has established its own consulting department, GreenTech Solutions. Equipped with high-end engineering competencies and supported by state-of-the-art test laboratory and pilot facilities facilities, an interdisciplinary team of experts offers services in all phases of the technological development, from concept to market. BDI&rsquo;s development and progress have been driven by research, a core activity of the company. For over a decade, BDI has been examining algae as a sustainable energy source. Using in-house developed cultivation technology at a production site in Hartberg, BDI-BioLife Science GmbH manufactures natural premium algal recyclables that are distributed globally for use in the nutritional supplement and cosmetics industries. But the company doesn&rsquo;t plan to stop there. &ldquo;We have still have a few tricks up our sleeve,&rdquo; adds Wilhelm Hammer, founder of BDI. &ldquo;With a new intelligent recycling technology, we&rsquo;ll wage war against plastic trash.&rdquo; BDI BioEnergy International GmbH

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With 70-plus projects globally and more than 320 patents, BDI-BioEnergy International GmbH says its tailor-made biodiesel plants produce high-quality fuel that meets the strictest standards.

Tailor-Made Biodiesel Plants 

RISING UP:  Although Hurricane Ida forced REG to briefly shut down its Geismar, Louisiana, renewable diesel plant in late August, the expansion project there is progressing on schedule. By late 2023, the facilityâ€™s capacity will be boosted from 90 

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STACKED FOR GROWTH: BP announced in October that it is investing $369 million to improve its Cherry Point Refinery in Blaine, Washington. About $45 million of that total investment will be used to expand the facilityâ€™s renewable diesel output from 

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ROAD TO RENEWABLES: In late 2021, Marathon reported that detailed engineering and permitting work on its Martinez, California, renewable diesel project was progressing on schedule. The facility is expected to produce 260 MMgy by late 2022 and, potent

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THE LONG VIEW:  Near San Francisco, Phillips 66 is expanding its Rodeo refinery to produce renewable diesel and other biofuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oil. Already producing 120 MMgy, the facility is expected to grow its annu

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As the number of operational biodiesel plants in North America has dropped by a third over the past two years, a surge of renewable diesel production rises.

Pillars of New Production

In the hours before Hurricane Ida&rsquo;s landfall in late August, two of the nation&rsquo;s largest renewable diesel producers, each under expansion, briefly shut down operations in southern Louisiana. While both Diamond Green Diesel, in Norco, and Renewable Energy Group, in Geismar, weathered the storm without incident, Ida was an inconvenient reminder of their coastal proximity. Meanwhile, 230 miles to the north, Strategic Biofuels LLC, just days after completing its landmark carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) test well research&mdash;and virtually unaffected by Ida&mdash;pressed on with its own renewable diesel effort at the Port of Columbia in Caldwell Parish. &ldquo;This far north, the storm wasn&rsquo;t an issue,&rdquo; says Strategic Biofuels CEO Paul Schubert, explaining how the site of the proposed plant, largely insulated from the Gulf&rsquo;s extreme weather, is a fortuitous but tangential attribute of its inland location. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sitting above an ideal reservoir for carbon sequestration, and it just happens to be in the heart of a massively underutilized fiber basket.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Schubert says the proposed 33.7 MMgy renewable diesel plant, along with its planned CO2 injection wells, will be located on a 300-plus-acre site near the quiet Ouachita River port where components of the facility will eventually be delivered via barge. Other products could also come and go by river, but the ultra-low-carbon biofuel produced there will be delivered to the West Coast via rail, as a Union Pacific main line runs past the site. When built, the plant will utilize forestry waste as a feedstock, primarily Southern yellow pine thinnings from plantation forests in the area that have been privately managed for over a century. Strategic Biofuels has secured a 20-year agreement for forestry waste that would be delivered to the facility in the form of wood chips. Schubert says forest timber is the top agricultural product in Louisiana, and just as weeds must be controlled in Midwest farm fields, commercial plantation forests in the South are crops that require thinning. When a plantation forest is grown, Schubert explains, as many as 700 seedlings are planted per acre to ensure forest density. The developing trees compete for sunlight, nutrients and water. Ultimately, most of those trees are removed via thinning to allow the largest, healthiest pines to grow to harvestable size. &ldquo;By the time trees are big enough for lumber production, that same plantation will hold just 100 to 120 trees per acre,&rdquo; he says, explaining that at least two rounds of thinning occur over the course of the 30- to 35-year tree-growing cycle, one at about 12 to 15 years and a second one about seven years later. Without thinning, Schubert says, harvesting commercial timber for construction, furniture, and telephone poles would be virtually impossible. The branches and treetops from the thinnings are left on the forest floor to rot, producing greenhouse gases. The larger tree trunks, or rounds, have traditionally been used for pulp and paper production. But pulp mills in the region, which once consumed more than 4 million tons of forest waste annually, have shut down. &ldquo;It was a depressed market even before the pulp mills closed, and now it&rsquo;s even worse for the loggers and timber owners,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;Our plant will be able to use about 1 million tons of forest waste per year. The demand we&rsquo;d create for these materials will be greatly appreciated by the timber owners and the loggers.&rdquo; The proposed plant, dubbed Louisiana Green Fuels, would gasify the forest waste into carbon monoxide and hydrogen and use the Fischer-Tropsch process to create paraffins, which would then be upgraded, via cracking, to synthetic renewable diesel. Schubert, a Ph.D. chemist with 35 years of experience in the petrochemical and renewable fuels industry, is spearheading the project along with the company&rsquo;s Chief Operating Officer Bob Meredith, who has nearly 50 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Along with their own forestry, technology and renewables experts, they&rsquo;re leveraging support from Koch Project Solutions and Hatch, a global engineering and project management firm.&nbsp; The cost of the project could ultimately be about $1.5 billion, with the CCS component representing roughly 10% of the overall price. &ldquo;Carbon capture requires equipment that selectively removes carbon dioxide produced in the process,&rdquo; Schubert says, breaking down some of the near- and long-term costs of CCS. &ldquo;We end up with a high-purity CO2 stream that is then compressed and injected about a mile underground where it is held by the same forces that have held oil and gas underground for millions of years. The wells require specialized metallurgy because of the corrosiveness of the greenhouse gases that are being stored. Long-term, there are well monitoring costs, both from the surface and via peripheral monitoring wells.&rdquo; Strategic Biofuels could be the first renewable diesel producer in the world to capture and sequester CO2, but the ethanol industry is also aggressively pursuing sequestration to lower the carbon footprint of ethanol blended into gasoline. Already, more than 50 U.S. ethanol plants are engaged in the early stages of CCS exploration or investment, 31 of them signing on to aggregate their carbon dioxide via pipeline across multiple states for sequestration in North Dakota. Half a dozen ethanol plants owned by Valero (parent company to Diamond Green Diesel) have signed onto a separate CCS pipeline project; and Marquis Energy has commissioned a 5,000-foot sequestration test well at the site of its bio-industrial complex in Hennepin, Illinois. Last year, Gron Renewables, which has proposed a massive four-phase renewable diesel project at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, also began studying CCS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Low CI, High Returns A plan to produce less than 34 MMgy of renewable diesel at a time when larger companies like DGD, REG and Gron are proposing, commissioning or already operating plants 10 times that size, may seem dubious. But Schubert says the estimated profitability of Louisiana Green Fuels makes up for its comparatively small scale.&nbsp; Schubert says the economics of the project are driven by CO2 sequestration. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s fundamentally how we&rsquo;re different. If we were just proposing to build this plant without sequestration, we&rsquo;d end up with a CI for forestry waste in the low-to-mid 20s,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But when we generate our own green power and then add CCS, we get down to a remarkable minus 238. It&rsquo;s a game changer,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;So, when you start looking at the combination of federal credits (RINs) and California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits&mdash;which would make up nearly 80% of the total market value of the fuel&mdash;the margins are over $10 per gallon. That&rsquo;s almost a million dollars a day at full capacity.&rdquo; The CI of a biofuel, as defined by California&rsquo;s LCFS, ultimately determines the biofuel&rsquo;s value in the California marketplace. For the sake of comparison, Schubert says, renewable diesel made from soybean oil and canola oil generally achieves a CI score in the mid-50s; corn oil and animal fats in the mid-30s; and used cooking oil&mdash;&ldquo;considered the best of the lot, if you can find it&rdquo;&mdash;about 20. &ldquo;Forestry waste alone is almost on par with used cooking oil (UCO),&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;It gets you into the low 20s, but sequestration takes it down to an entirely new level.&rdquo; Unlike other advanced biofuel feedstocks, forest waste&mdash;at least in northern Louisiana&mdash;is widely available and reasonably priced. &ldquo;Used cooking oil nationwide is largely spoken for, and the reality of the current renewable diesel boom is that most production will be reliant on soybean oil out of the Midwest,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;That comes with transportation costs and energy use, which adds to your carbon footprint, and soy oil has competing uses, too. The margins from soy oil-based renewable diesel are around $1 per gallon, and with only a twenty percent increase in soybean oil cost, they could go negative. Our feedstock is actually in oversupply because other uses for it have dried up regionally.&rdquo; Schubert says it is ironic that California, which is the destination for Louisiana Green Fuels&rsquo; renewable diesel&mdash;a product of forest waste&mdash;is a state that could benefit from thinning its federal forests to make them more fire resilient. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s true, but the way the federal Renewable Fuel Standard works now, you&rsquo;re not allowed to use any material from a federal forest&mdash;not so much as a pinecone,&rdquo; he explains, adding that discussions are taking place at the highest levels of forest management to evaluate the role biofuels could play in forest health and fire mitigation. &ldquo;For now, we&rsquo;re focused on private land here in Louisiana, which makes up 81% of the forested land,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp; &nbsp; Schubert says there is enough land available to Strategic Biofuels in northern Louisiana to carry out a second and even third phase of the planned project, essentially doubling or tripling its total capacity of renewable diesel and sequestered CO2. And he believes the company could easily extend its range of control on the surface to command an extended plume rights area for future growth. &ldquo;We could use the same wells and simply transport the carbon dioxide via pipeline a few miles from additional plants,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There is more than enough feedstock in the region to support growth.&rdquo; The Well and Geology Early on, Strategic Biofuels made a bold decision to put the stratigraphic test well ahead of everything else on its project development timeline, betting that collecting data on the geologic viability of the site would provide a glidepath for future investment.&nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;We could have carried out years of work before putting steel in the ground, but we didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;We saw that the carbon intensity reduction that CCS brings to the fuel is where the money is. And we were confident that the test well would essentially de-risk the project.&rdquo; He describes the test well investment as a calculated bet that paid off. &ldquo;For us, the well drives everything. We raised the funds for the test well program&mdash;85 percent being raised in northern Louisiana with people who really understand drilling for oil and gas. And we did this with the understanding that we could drill the well and it could fail, even with the right geologic work to back it up. But if we succeeded, as we did, the returns would look good for everyone involved.&rdquo; The goals of the test well program were to demonstrate that CO2, the main greenhouse gas generated during the fuel production process, can be safely and securely stored deep underground, and that the storage reservoir has sufficient capacity to store all the gas produced over the plant&rsquo;s lifetime. Schubert says completing the test well program was an essential prerequisite for securing a permit for the EPA Class VI sequestration well. The test well sits on top of a series of interconnected saltwater aquifers that possess geologic features making them capable of accepting CO2 for decades. The depth of the brine aquifers ranges from 5,000 to 6,000 feet&mdash;far below any drinking water reservoirs in the area. Under federal regulations for Class VI wells used for carbon dioxide injection, storage reservoirs must have an adequate upper confining zone. &ldquo;The Midway Shale is above these formations, and it is very thick and impervious,&rdquo; Schubert says, adding that the California LCFS requires an additional safeguard&mdash;a lower confining zone. &ldquo;Fortunately, we have that as well. It&rsquo;s exactly the right geology.&rdquo; What makes the geologic formation under Louisiana Green Fuels even more attractive is the historic absence of oil and gas production in the area. Schubert says the main &ldquo;leak path&rdquo; for sequestered carbon dioxide from deep geologic reservoirs is old, poorly capped wells that penetrate confining zones. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have that problem,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The nearest former oil well is nearly four miles away, and our CO2 plume won&rsquo;t expand that far.&rdquo; Eventually, the current test well will become a monitoring well, and Strategic Biofuels plans to drill two or more Class VI sequestration wells on site for redundancy. &ldquo;If one goes down, we&rsquo;ll be able to switch over to the other,&rdquo; Schubert says.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The test well data, being managed by consulting partner Geostock Sandia LLC, has proven excellent. &ldquo;Their analysis indicates that each well would have at least double the CO2 storage capacity needed for the life of the plant,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re looking at a 30-year timeline, and our reservoirs have vastly more capacity than that.&rdquo; With the expectation of filing for a Class VI well permit this winter, Strategic Biofuels is in the process of pulling together months of test well data&mdash;including extensive 3D modeling of the reservoir. Meanwhile, Schubert says, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources is taking steps to establish primacy over Class VI well permits in the state. &ldquo;The expectation is that the EPA will grant them that primacy soon,&rdquo; he says, adding that state oversight should expedite the process. &nbsp; Mineral Rights&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Louisiana is one of a few states that have established clear laws around &ldquo;pore rights,&rdquo; or the rights to sequester CO2 underground. &ldquo;There are only a handful of states that have even tried to define this,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an open question in most states. Is it the surface owner? Is it the mineral rights owner? Is it shared? Defining this is a big deal, and Louisiana has done so&mdash;establishing that the rights belong to the surface owner. The logic is that mineral rights are the right to extract valuable minerals from underground. Sequestration is storing, not extracting.&rdquo; Securing the pore rights is critical for the success of the project. However, Schubert says that the state legislature was visionary in terms of establishing the framework needed to support CCS projects.&nbsp; &ldquo;The legislature established that CCS is in the public interest, and therefore established an eminent domain right to acquire the pore rights,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s ultimately very important because it protects the project from being blocked,&rdquo; he explains, adding that the carbon dioxide plume within the deep geologic space is expected to extend out a 1.5- to 2-mile radius from the injection point over 30 years of operation. &ldquo;Without eminent domain, someone with even a tiny piece of land above this plume might be able to prevent the project from being built,&rdquo; he says. Because there has never been any significant oil or gas production in the Caldwell Parish, the targeted sequestration zone has no current value. Schubert says Strategic Biofuels intends to negotiate a fair market value with surface owners nonetheless. &ldquo;And if there are people who hold out or make unreasonable demands, we would be able to use eminent domain to acquire the rights to inject CO2 in that deep zone.&rdquo; Throughout the first and second quarters of 2022, Strategic Biofuels will advance the plant&rsquo;s engineering design, giving greater clarity to the cost of the project, while applying for the required regulatory permits and putting third-party contracts in place. Schubert believes the plant could be mechanically complete by mid-2025 and in full commercial operation later that year. Although Strategic Biofuels&rsquo; project is not subject to the weather risks that projects closer to Louisiana&rsquo;s Gulf Coast face, the critical risks all project developers face is de-risking economic, schedule and execution risks. &ldquo;Thomas Edison said there&rsquo;s a way to do it better &hellip; find it! That&rsquo;s what our team has done,&rdquo; Schubert says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve de-risked the project&rsquo;s economics by drilling the test well first. On top of that, we&rsquo;ve built a team with deep expertise in wells, forestry, fuels and business, and then brought in industry leading partners to de-risk execution and schedule. Truly a better way to high-margin, carbon-negative fuels.&rdquo; Author: Tom Bryan Biodiesel Magazine tbryan@bbiinternational.com 701-746-8385

PROVING GROUND: An aerial view of the stratigraphic test well that Strategic Biofuels drilled in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, to demonstrate that CO2 can be safely and securely stored deep underground there, and that the reservoir has decades of stora

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PIECE BY PIECE: Multiple 30-foot core sections were collected using the stratigraphic test well. To verify the presence of adequate upper and lower containment and injection intervals, each 30-foot section was cut into three equal sections for analys

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PINE PLANTATION: Rows of pine trees in sustainably managed forests like this one can take up to 35 years to produce. The forests are typically  thinned 12 to 15 years after they are planted, and then again about seven years later. 

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A few hours north of New Orleans, where two massive renewable diesel plants already operate, a smaller project with huge implications for both biofuels and CCS is moving forward.  

Going Low in Louisiana

With a 25% investment share in ADM&rsquo;s crushing facility under construction in Spiritwood, North Dakota, Marathon is tying up all the soybean oil production. The oil will feed MPC&rsquo;s retrofitted oil refinery in Dickinson that reached its full capacity of 184 MMgy nearly a year ago, producing renewable diesel and naphtha. When complete in 2023, the Spiritwood soybean processing complex in eastern North Dakota will produce approximately 600 million pounds of refined soybean oil annually, enough feedstock for approximately 75 million gallons of renewable diesel per year. Utilizing state-of-the-art automation technology, the $350 million crush and refining complex is being built on the site of a former Cargill malting facility. &ldquo;The project is moving along nicely,&rdquo; says Ken Campbell, ADM president of North American Oils and Biodiesel. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of work done on demolition, abatement and environmental approvals. We remain optimistic that we&rsquo;ll be on time and well within the budget.&rdquo; The Spiritwood site lies east of Jamestown, North Dakota, in an industrial park featuring a circle unit train track. At the site, Great River Energy&rsquo;s Spiritwood Station generates 99 MW of electricity and sends its lower-pressure steam over the fence to the adjacent 70 MMgy Dakota Spirit ethanol plant. Regional economic developers have long worked at attracting another industry to the site, particularly after Cargill announced it would shutter the barley malting plant. Cellulosic ethanol developers, as well as a second group hoping to build a soybean crushing facility, both fell short on financing. ADM began thinking about the project in 2019, Campbell says. &ldquo;The site is very strategic for us.&rdquo; There&rsquo;s a good draw of soybean acres in several counties surrounding the southeastern North Dakota location, plus it lies 200 miles east of Marathon&rsquo;s green diesel plant. Sited on a Burlington Northern mainline, the crushing facility has good access to the Pacific Northwest for soymeal exports. Dickinson RD Marathon acquired the Dickinson refinery with its purchase of Andeavor/Tesoro in 2018. Tesoro had begun a conversion to coprocess renewable diesel with petroleum diesel. In fall 2018, Marathon started work on full conversion to renewable diesel, installing Haldor Topsoe&rsquo;s HydroFlex technology. Denmark-headquartered Haldor Topsoe describes its hydrotreating process as offering lower energy consumption, resulting in lower carbon intensity alongside a lower capital expenditure. The company offers a portfolio of 25 catalysts specific to processing renewable feedstocks. &ldquo;We were excited about the success of the HydroFlex technology at our Dickinson Renewable Diesel facility, where it exceeded its process guarantees,&rdquo; says Justin Womeldorff, MPC renewables business manager. &ldquo;Haldor Topsoe&rsquo;s technology is the most widely used in renewable diesel and jet fuel production.&rdquo; The company&rsquo;s second installation of the technology is underway at its Martinez, California, refinery, which is expected to come online in the second half of this year and reach its full capacity of 730 MMgy by the end of 2023. Marathon also began operations early in 2021 at a 58 MMgy feedstock pretreatment facility in Beatrice, Nebraska. The pretreatment includes solids filtration and contaminant and moisture removal for a wide variety of potential feedstocks, Womeldorff says. Pretreatment is needed to remove compounds that would foul the catalysts used in the RD process. Campbell says that its refined and bleached soybean oil from the new Spiritwood crushing facility will probably not require further processing. ADM is not a newcomer to biofuel processing. The company has been involved in biodiesel production since the mid-2000s, partnering in the building of Mid-America Biofuels LLC in Mexico, Missouri, in 2006, and opening its first wholly owned biodiesel plant in Velva, North Dakota, in 2007. Today, ADM has 725 MMgy biodiesel capacity globally, Campbell reports, with 130 MMgy in Brazil, just over 300 MMgy in Europe and 290 MMgy in North America. The U.S. and Canadian plants are vertically integrated with crush, with the two Missouri plants at Mexico and Deerfield using soy and two canola crushers at Velva, North Dakota, and Lloydminster, Alberta. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sized right,&rdquo; Campbell says. &ldquo;We have a solid record with quality production volumes going back to the mid-2000s. We are focused now on efficiency and improvements where we have an excellent position globally to supply a variety of markets that are transitioning to a low-carbon future.&rdquo; When asked about the viability of biodiesel with all the renewable diesel (RD) capacity projected to come online&mdash;and given that RD is a drop-in biofuel that will be competing with biodiesel for feedstocks&mdash;Campbell sounded an optimistic note. Acknowledging the greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits of RD and sustainable aviation fuel as well as biodiesel, he says, &ldquo;I think biodiesel still has a significant role to play in energy transformation as we think about lowering GHGs and lowering the carbon intensity of our products.&rdquo; He suggests renewable diesel producers will find a blend of RD and biodiesel &ldquo;a nice way to blend and extend their margin.&rdquo; There have been several announcements of planned oilseed crushing expansions, he adds, &ldquo;obviously to address this new disruptive demand from the renewable green diesel standpoint.&rdquo; Considering the oil demand for RD capacity due to come online in the next three to five years, plus the anticipated needs of food customers for soy oil, Campbell says, &ldquo;the North American balance sheet is going to be fairly well balanced.&rdquo; The preferred feedstock for many renewable green diesel plants is going to be low-carbon-intensity feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, animal fats, tallow and distillers corn oil, he adds. &ldquo;At the end of the day, there&rsquo;s just not enough supply to satisfy that future demand, so they need to look for alternatives.&rdquo; The U.S. EIA reported in 2019 that soybean oil was the most commonly used vegetable oil for biodiesel production with about a 70% share, representing about 30% of domestic soybean oil use. A 2020 report indicates soybean oil represents about 63% of total biodiesel feedstocks. &nbsp; Carbon Intensity Reduction While lowering operating costs and energy inputs has long been a goal in biofuel production, the need to lower carbon intensity (CI) has industry looking at feedstock supplies. About 25% of the CI comes from transportation and processing, Campbell says, but the bulk of soy&rsquo;s CI&mdash;75%&mdash;comes from the farm. &ldquo;There is a significant opportunity for the entire market to address regenerative ag, better farming practices, no till practices. We need to incentivize farmers to think about these things,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;At ADM, we&rsquo;re constantly thinking about how to engage with the farmer to improve practices so we can lower the carbon intensity of soybean oil, and even meal.&rdquo; Among the possibilities, he adds, is the inclusion of oilseed cover crops such as carinata, camelina or pennycress. However, given the current commodity prices for corn and soy, he says, &ldquo;As good as these programs look and sound and feel, obviously [farmers] don&rsquo;t want to disrupt their opportunities by introducing something that is new and unfamiliar.&rdquo; MPC also is looking at carbon intensity reduction measures. Last May, when the company announced a contract with One Energy Enterprises LLC to install five wind turbines at the Dickinson RD plant, the news release said the company&rsquo;s goal is to reduce GHG carbon intensity by 30% below 2014 levels by 2030. The turbines are expected to generate more than 40 million kilowatt-hours annually, providing approximately 45% of the RD facility&rsquo;s electricity. &ldquo;We continue to explore projects at our Dickinson facility that have to the potential to help us producer a net-zero fuel there,&rdquo; Womeldorff reports, adding the permitting process for the wind turbines is progressing. &ldquo;We are evaluating the installation of a system to capture the CO2 produced from our on-site hydrogen plant and then pumping the CO2 deep below the site where it will remain sequestered. We are also working with farmers to identify and optimize practices that reduce GHG gas emissions and increase carbon storage in agricultural lands.&rdquo; Biofuel Partnerships, New Ventures The North Dakota venture is not the first working relationship for ADM and Marathon. ADM has long supplied soybean oil to Marathon&rsquo;s 91 MMgy biodiesel plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, which the company purchased in 2014. Both companies&rsquo; involvement in biofuels goes even further back. In ADM&rsquo;s case, back to the 1980s, when it added fuel ethanol production to an existing corn processing wet mill. ADM entered the biodiesel market in the mid-2000s, partnering in Mid-America Biofuels in 2006 and opening its first wholly owned biodiesel production facility in Velva, North Dakota, in 2007. Marathon invested in ethanol in the mid-2000s, via a joint venture with The Andersons Inc. to build a plant in Greenville, Ohio. In 2019, that partnership was extended in a JV called The Andersons Marathon Holdings LLC, producing 475 MMgy of ethanol at locations in Albion, Michigan; Clymers, Indiana; Denison, Iowa; and the original JV in Ohio. Marathon&rsquo;s investment in advanced biofuels includes Fulcrum BioEnergy. In July, after more than a decade in development, Fulcrum completed construction on its Sierra BioFuels Plant east of Reno, Nevada. The plant will convert 175,000 tons of prepared municipal solid waste into approximately 11 MMgy syncrude. The process utilizes gasification and Fischer-Tropsch processes to produce syncrude and upgraded transportation fuel products.&nbsp; Womeldorff says Marathon plans on taking 800 barrels per day of biocrude material from Fulcrum to its refinery in Anacortes, Washington, for processing into transportation fuels. Marathon is entering the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through its subsidiary, Virent Inc., which was acquired in 2018 as part the Andeavor/Tesoro purchase. Virent&rsquo;s BioForming technology converts plant-based sugars into hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals using catalytic chemistry. In October, a United Airlines test flight was powered with 100% SAF in one engine and traditional petroleum-based jet fuel in the other. A second demonstration flight on Dec. 1 included passengers from the companies involved in the effort&mdash;United Airlines, Boeing, GE Aviation, CFM International (a JV between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines), World Energy, Virent and Marathon Petroleum. Womeldorff explains the Virent fuel is unique in that most SAF is typically a blend with hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids and petroleum-based fuel. &ldquo;Jet fuel requires a certain level of aromatics content in order to meet fuel and specifications, provided by petroleum fuel. But because Virent&rsquo;s SAK (synthesized aromatic kerosene) can provide these aromatics, it makes 100% fossil-free, drop-in SAF possible.&rdquo; The fuel for the test flight was manufactured by Virent using corn dextrose from Iowa. SAF is on ADM&rsquo;s radar as well, albeit through its corn processing division, rather than oilseeds. In October, Gevo Inc. announced a memorandum of understanding about 900 million gallons of ethanol produced at ADM&rsquo;s dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Decatur, Illinois, to be processed using Gevo&rsquo;s proprietary technology, resulting in about 500 million gallons of SAF and other renewable hydrocarbons. Isobutanol is expected to be produced at a proposed facility in Decatur that would employ ADM&rsquo;s carbon capture and sequestration technology. In the Gevo news release, ADM CEO Juan Luciano says the potential conversion of more than half of its production capacity represents a major step in the evolution of ADM&rsquo;s Carbohydrate Solutions business. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re continuing to live our purpose, with our entry into SAF representing another step in our strategic efforts to advance decarbonization and use our integrated value chain to deliver more sustainable, environmentally friendly products and services.&rdquo; Author: Susanne Retka Schill Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

OIL REFINERY TURNED RENEWABLE: Marathon Petroleum Corp.â€™s retrofitted oil refinery in Dickinson, North Dakota, produces 184 MMgy of renewable diesel and naphtha. 

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Ag and oil are intersecting in North Dakota with a new joint venture between ag giant Archer Daniels Midland and top-ranked petroleum energy company Marathon Petroleum Corp.

Where Oil and Ag Mix

National Biodiesel Board elects new governing board The National Biodiesel Board announced its newly elected governing board leaders in mid-November, individuals who span the biodiesel and renewable diesel industry. The NBB noted it was an important strategy as the trade association steps into its fourth decade and moves to rebrand itself to represent biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. Elected members include: Chad Stone, Renewable Energy Group Inc.; Chris Hill, Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council; Dave Walton, Iowa Soybean Association; Harry Simpson, Crimson Renewable Energy LLC; Kent Engelbrecht, ADM; Mike Devine, World Energy; and Ryan Pederson, North Dakota Soybean Council. Greg Anderson, Tom Brooks, Tim Keaveney, Gary Louis, Mike Rath, Rob Shaffer, Robert Stobaugh and Paul Teta remain on the board. Camelina storage, rail loading facility planned for Montana Sustainable Oils Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc., has purchased 45 acres in Havre, Montana, according to a Nov. 19 announcement. The company indicated it is close to selecting a contractor to begin construction of the planned 600,000 bushel storage and rail loading facility for its proprietary camelina grain in Q1 2022. Mike Karst, Sustainable Oils president, said the dedicated grain facility&rsquo;s adjacent proximity to the CHS Big Sky-Havre rail siding will enable the company to directly load unit trains of grain to streamline transportation logistics to GCEH&rsquo;s biorefinery in Bakersfield, California, or other extraction plants. Beginning in 2022, ExxonMobil has made a five-year commitment to purchase up to 220 million gallons of renewable diesel made from GCEH&rsquo;s Bakersfield Renewable Fuels refinery in California. Sustainable Oils' long-term goal is to secure contracts to grow more than 1 million acres of Sustainable Oils camelina varieties across Montana and the High Plains. Booster, REG partner to offer mobile delivery of sustainable fuel Booster, a tech-enabled energy delivery service, and Renewable Energy Group, a leading producer and provider of fuels, have partnered to provide mobile delivery of renewable diesel, biodiesel and blended fuels to fleets. The service started in California in August. Under the new partnership, REG UltraClean Blend and other renewable and biodiesel fuels will be delivered to customers via Booster's proprietary trucks, last-mile technology platform and certified drivers. As part of the partnership, REG will be an exclusive supplier of biobased diesel to Booster and has become an investor in the company. Booster will also be an exclusive mobile fueler to REG, partnering with the company to explore expansion opportunities together. The REG/Booster collaboration will initially focus on servicing fleet customers in California, starting with the San Francisco Bay Area and Orange County, with additional markets to follow. First Airbus helicopter flight with 100% SAF An Airbus H225 has performed the first ever helicopter flight with 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) powering one of the Safran Makila 2 engines. The flight, which took place at the company&rsquo;s headquarters in Marignane, France, marks the start of a flight campaign aiming to assess the impact of unblended SAF on the helicopter systems in view of certifying the use of SAF blends that exceed today&rsquo;s 50% limit. The campaign follows earlier unblended SAF bench tests performed by Safran Helicopter Engines at its Bordes plant and will provide further understanding of the technical challenges associated with the use of 100% SAF. The H225 test helicopter flew with an unblended SAF derived from used cooking oil, provided by TotalEnergies, which offers a net 90% CO2 reduction compared to regular jet fuel. B20 approved for use in Union Pacific locomotives Union Pacific locomotives will soon be using higher blends of biodiesel. Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company, approved the use of up to 20% biodiesel blend in specific EMD locomotive series operated by the railroad. Previously, the locomotives were approved to operate at 5% biodiesel blends. The updated fuel recommendation comes after testing high-horsepower locomotives used for hauling freight long distances, with performance being monitored for things such as fuel consumption and impact on engine oil and fuel filters. Progress Rail is currently undergoing additional testing and development. CN, Progress Rail partner with REG to test biofuel blends Canadian National Railway Company and Progress Rail are partnering with Renewable Energy Group to test high-level renewable fuel blends, including both biodiesel and renewable diesel. Trials and qualifications will include up to 100% biobased diesel The ultimate goal is to gain a better understanding of the long-term durability and operational impacts of renewable fuels on locomotives, especially in cold weather, as well as planning needed modifications to fully leverage their usage over the next decade. Brazil to maintain biodiesel blend rate at 10% in 2022 The Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy announced in late November that it will maintain the current biodiesel previously mandated blend rate of 10% through the year 2022. An announcement issued by the government cites cost concerns as the reason for the action. The decision was made by the National Energy Policy Council. In August 2020, the government lowered the blend rate of B12 to B10, citing an insufficient supply of fuel and high soybean prices. Blend adjustments were made in mid-2021, but were kept at a level below the statutory target of 13%. Aemetis to supply Delta with 250 million gallons of SAF Aemetis Inc., a renewable fuels company, announced an offtake agreement with Delta Air Lines for 250 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be delivered over a 10-year term. The aggregate value of the agreement is estimated to be more than $1 billion, including state and federal tax credits. Delta&rsquo;s agreement with Aemetis builds on the company&rsquo;s current effort for a future of net-zero aviation, which includes committing to airline carbon neutrality from March 2020 onward, and aspiring to replace 10% of its conventional jet fuel consumption with SAF by the end of 2030. The aviation fuel is expected to be produced by the Aemetis renewable jet/diesel plant under development on a 125-acre former U.S. Army ammunition production plant site in Riverbank, California. The fuel is expected to be available for use by Delta beginning in 2024. Calumet launches renewable diesel subsidiary Montana Renewables On Nov. 19, Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. announced a series of strategic transactions in connection with its renewable diesel business, one of which establishes Montana Renewables LLC as an unrestricted, pure-play renewables subsidiary of Calumet. MRL has closed on a $300 million convertible debt investment from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management L.P., as well as $145 million preferred equity investment by Calumet. Calumet, which owns 100% of MRL&rsquo;s equity, now has operations in Montana that include two fully independent business lines: renewables through MRL, and conventional Canadian crude refining through Calumet Montana Refining LLC. MRL will complete its in-flight capital projects and is expected to become one of the most advantaged renewable diesel producers in North America. JGC, Cosmo Oil to build SAF project using Honeywell technology Per a late October announcement, JGC Holdings Corp. and Cosmo Oil Co. will use Honeywell&rsquo;s UOP Ecofining technology for the first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel project in Japan.&nbsp; The project will convert locally collected, used cooking oil into renewable jet fuel meeting ASTM D7566 standards. UOP currently has licensed 24 Ecofining units in eleven countries around the world, processing 12 different types of renewable feedstocks. Startup of the Japan facility is slated for 2025.

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Business Briefs

As pandemic restrictions ease and demand for air travel returns, the business aviation industry is doubling down on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and other measures that support its ambitious climate commitments.&nbsp; Business aviation was an early advocate for SAF, first setting aspirational emissions mitigation goals back in 2009 and continuing to build on them today. We believe strongly that SAF, which has the potential to cut aviation&rsquo;s lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 80%, is critical to making our industry more efficient and reducing carbon emissions meaningfully. SAF is our industry&rsquo;s sustainable solution of today, as we innovate and create the technologies of tomorrow. The good news is that the SAF market is accelerating faster than ever, helped by commitments from business and commercial aviation as air travel rebounds and sustainability becomes a more urgent global priority. Demand is increasing at the same time as the development of SAF from a variety of sources, including food waste, algae and converting carbon dioxide to fuel. It&rsquo;s an exciting time to get involved, and other big players in the aviation industry are beginning to jump into the market. But there is much more work to be done on SAF, as well as other advancements that will reduce our environmental footprint. To that end, business aviation leaders recently set some ambitious sustainability commitments. The industry pledged to cut carbon emissions in half and achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, while continuing to increase fuel efficiency by 2% every year between 2020 and 2030. In addition, commercial airlines and other organizations have pledged to transition 10% of the global jet fuel supply to SAF by 2030. These efforts have been echoed by the public sector with commitments from the U.S. government and the European Union. At the UN climate summit in November, the Biden administration set a goal for achieving net-zero aviation emissions by 2050, following previously announced executive actions to support increased SAF production by 2030. The EU aims to increase the amount of SAF blended by 10% in 2030 and 50% in 2040. This is real momentum, but challenges remain. SAF is still in limited supply as production scales to meet demand, and airports incorporate it into their existing fuel pipelines. We need greater investment, action and cooperation from the public and private sectors to make SAF widely available and plentiful. To increase SAF supplies and help lower costs right now, suppliers are investing in production and creating partnerships to make sustainable fuel more widely available. The industry is also finding innovative ways to create demand. One of those market innovations is &ldquo;Book and Claim,&rdquo; which allows a jet operator to buy SAF even when it is not available at their departing airport, in exchange for an environmental credit. At the same time, the industry is making investments to develop next-generation technology&mdash;including electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft&mdash;that will further support the industry&rsquo;s climate pledges, and it remains steadfast in its pursuit of greater efficiency. This will also come with technological advancements, such as aerodynamic optimization and other infrastructure changes, that will help the industry reach its net-zero goal better and faster. The unified commitments from the public and private sectors to invest in SAF and sustainable aviation are meaningful and making a difference today. However, there&rsquo;s still plenty of work to be done to enable SAF to meet growing demands. Business aviation will continue its efforts to accelerate the production, availability and adoption of sustainable aviation fuels, and use market-based measures to both increase demand for SAF and offset carbon emissions. The combination of these efforts and technological gains will allow our industry to continually reduce its carbon emissions. Our shared goal is ushering in the next wave of aviation&mdash;one that is safer, more efficient and better equipped to contribute to the health and safety of our planet. Author: Stewart D'Leon Director of Environmental &amp; Technical Operations National Business Aviation Association&nbsp; &nbsp; nbaa.org

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As pandemic restrictions ease and demand for air travel returns, the business aviation industry is doubling down on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and other measures that support its ambitious climate commitments. 


Business Aviation: Doubling Down on Sustainable Aviation Fuels

There are currently 27 fully operational, commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects operating around the world, with 100-plus more in various stages of development, according to the Global CCS institute. The range of industries deploying CCS is diverse, from coal gasification and power generation to fertilizer plants, natural gas processing, steel and ethanol facilities. And, if all goes according to plan, a renewable diesel plant will be added to the list. In Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, aptly named Strategic Biofuels will serve an outlet for forest waste alongside a declining pulp and paper and paper sector, gasifying about 1 million tons per year that will ultimately be converted into renewable diesel. It will also deploy CCS, which will serve as the project cornerstone. Going Low in Louisiana on page 16, by Biodiesel Magazine&rsquo;s Tom Bryan, gives readers a detailed account of the company&rsquo;s plans, business model and strategy behind the $1.5 billion project (at its core are a reasonably priced, abundant feedstock and state and federal incentives). Sized at 33.7 MMgy, the facility is modest in comparison to some of the massive projects operating or planned in North America. But Strategic Biofuels CEO Paul Schubert tells Bryan the economics of the project are actually driven the by CO2 sequestration. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s fundamentally how we&rsquo;re different,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp; Speaking of projects under development, you&rsquo;ll find a comprehensive list in our North American renewable diesel project roundup, &ldquo;Pillars of New Production,&rdquo; on page 22. Growth in renewable diesel, even in just the past year, is pretty astounding. At the same time in 2020, Biodiesel Magazine reported there were 14 existing, under construction or planned renewable diesel/sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facilities with a total of 5.5 billion gallons of capacity. By the end of 2021, that number jumped to 26, with the total of operational, under construction and proposed capacity increasing by over 1 billion gallons, with California unsurprisingly becoming home to the most, with five, closely followed by Louisiana. Our third feature, &ldquo;Where Ag and oil Mix,&rdquo; by freelance writer Susanne Retka Schill, dives into ADM&rsquo;s soybean crushing facility under construction in Spiritwood, North Dakota, and its relationship with Marathon Petroleum Corp.&rsquo;s operational renewable diesel and naphtha plant in Dickinson. Located about 200 miles directly west, soybean oil produced at the crushing plant will be used as a feedstock at the Dickinson refinery. Related to that, an interesting point that Kenneth Campbell, ADM president of North American Oils and Biodiesel, makes&mdash;once again, finding us back on the topic of carbon intensity (CI)&mdash;is that the bulk of soybean oil&rsquo;s CI comes from transportation and processing, and there is &ldquo;a significant opportunity for the entire market to address regenerative ag, better farming practices, no till practices.&rdquo; He adds that farmers need incentives to think about strategies to reduce these CI ratings, and gives an example of oilseed cover crops as an idea to help do so. MPC has similar viewpoints, and has been evaluating the installation of a CO2 capture and sequestration system at the Dickinson facility. Justin Womeldorff, MPC renewables business manager, adds, &ldquo;We continue to explore projects at our Dickinson facility that have to the potential to help us producer a net-zero fuel there.&rdquo;&nbsp; Author: Anna Simet Biodiesel Magazine

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Biodiesel Magazine Editor Anna Simet discusses content in the Winter 2022 issue.

2022 Issue 1

Business Briefs

Business Briefs

Columns

Business Aviation: Doubling Down on Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Carbon is the Buzzword

Featured

Pillars of New Production

Going Low in Louisiana

Where Oil and Ag Mix

Contributions

The Path Forward for Hemp Renewable Fuels

Tailor-Made Biodiesel Plants

2022 Issue 1.css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}

Business Briefs

Business Briefs

Columns

Business Aviation: Doubling Down on Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Carbon is the Buzzword

Featured

Pillars of New Production

Going Low in Louisiana

Where Oil and Ag Mix

Contributions

The Path Forward for Hemp Renewable Fuels

Tailor-Made Biodiesel Plants

2022 Issue 1