MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. production capacity for renewable diesel could increase significantly through 2024, based on several announcements for projects that either are currently under construction or could be in development soon, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
This growth is driven by higher state and federal targets for renewable fuel, favorable tax credits, and the conversion of existing petroleum refineries into renewable diesel refineries. As of the end of 2020, U.S. renewable diesel production capacity totaled nearly 0.6 billion gallons per year (gal/y), or 38,000 barrels per day (b/d). Several projects currently under construction could increase this capacity by 2.4 billion gal/y; proposed and announced projects would add another 1.8 billion gal/y by 2024. If all projects come online as intended, U.S. renewable diesel production would total 5.1 billion gal/y (330,000 b/d) by the end of 2024.
Despite growth in renewable diesel production, renewable diesel will make up about 5% of current U.S. diesel production capacity by 2024 if all estimates of proposed renewable diesel capacity expansions occur as planned and petroleum diesel refinery capacity remains largely unchanged.
Renewable diesel is a renewable fuel that is chemically the same as petroleum diesel and nearly identical in its performance characteristics. Renewable diesel can be blended into petroleum diesel at any level, making it different from biodiesel, which can only be blended at rates between 2% and 20% of diesel fuel by volume.
Renewable diesel receives some of the most favorable greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction scores among existing programs, such as the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). As a result, participants in those programs are increasingly using renewable diesel to meet rising renewable fuel targets.
Although most new capacity for renewable diesel will be on the West Coast, some announced projects are on the Gulf Coast. California and other western states such as Oregon and Washington will likely consume the majority of renewable diesel produced on the Gulf Coast to meet future LCFS program targets in those states.
Several former petroleum refineries plan to begin producing renewable biodiesel. Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Martinez, California, plans to start producing renewable diesel in 2022 and could reach its full production capacity of 730 million gal/y (48,000 b/d) in 2023. Phillips 66’s Rodeo Renewed project in San Francisco, California, plans to produce 800 million gal/y (52,000 b/d) of renewable fuels when completely converted in 2024. If realized, this project would be the world’s largest facility of its kind.
As MRC informed earlier, Marathon Petroleum shut down a catalytic cracking unit in Galveston Bay on 18 June for scheduled maintenance. Maintenance at the 250,000 tonnes of propylene per year cat cracking unit will continue for 14 days.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC