The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted the land-use allow essential to reconfigure the San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo to supply renewable fuels. (Earlier submit.) Beneath a allowing assessment course of overseen by County leaders and underneath authority of the California Environmental High quality Act (CEQA), the plant can now proceed with its conversion away from crude oil-based gasoline manufacturing towards used cooking oils, fat, greases and vegetable oils, pending a last funding choice by Phillips 66 and different regulatory approvals.
The proposed facility conversion, generally known as the Rodeo Renewed challenge, stands to have an preliminary manufacturing capability of 800 million gallons per 12 months (50,000 barrels per day) of renewable diesel (RD), renewable gasoline (RG), and sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF). The totally permitted throughput is 67,000 barrels per day.
Manufacturing of those fuels is projected to slash lifecycle carbon emissions by an estimated 65%—the equal of taking 1.4 million vehicles off California roads annually. Rodeo Renewed additionally stands to chop standards pollutant emissions on the website by 50% and water use by 160 million gallons per 12 months.
We all know it gained’t occur in a single day. With the laws being adopted in California, probably the most progressive laws on this planet, in the event you have a look at sectors like aviation, marine and long-haul trucking, they’ll be in liquid fuels for a very long time. That may be a truth. It’s an sincere evaluation.
—Richard Corey, Government Officer on the California Air Assets Board, at a March 29 Contra Costa County Planning Fee assembly
Renewable diesel is a drop-in substitute gasoline that’s chemically equal to crude oil-derived diesel however with decrease carbon depth. Renewable gasoline and sustainable aviation gasoline are additionally thought-about drop-in replacements when blended to make low-carbon, low-sulfur, high-performing fuels. The challenge scope outlined within the Closing Environmental Affect Report included the development of a pre-treatment models and the repurposing of current hydrocracking models to allow manufacturing of renewable fuels.
The conversion will create greater than 500 building jobs and protect greater than 650 family-wage jobs, together with full-time staff and contractors. It can additionally assist California meet each its demand for renewable and traditional transportation fuels whereas helping the state obtain its environmental objectives, together with carbon neutrality by 2045.
As soon as reconfigured, the Rodeo Refinery will not transport or course of crude oil. Renewable fuels manufacturing at Rodeo is predicted to start in early 2024.
Processing of crude oil on the Rodeo website started in February 1896, when the 18-acre Oleum plant started processing 1,200 barrels per day of crude oil.
