Honeywell UOP (Des Plaines, Ill.) announced that the Diamond Green Diesel facility in Norco, La., will more than double its annual production of renewable diesel with the completion of a second Ecofining process unit with a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day (bpd). Diamond Green Diesel is owned by Valero Energy Corp. and Darling Ingredients Inc., and is the largest commercial advanced biofuel facility in the United States.
The Diamond Green Diesel facility converts inedible oils and other waste fats into a high-quality renewable diesel fuel. When the second unit is completed in 2021, the Diamond Green Diesel facility will have capacity to produce 675 million gallons of renewable diesel fuel per year.
The Diamond Green Diesel facility converts inedible oils and other waste feedstocks into Honeywell Green Diesel™, a high-quality fuel that is chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel. It can be used as a drop-in replacement in diesel-powered vehicles with no engine modifications, and features up to an 80-percent lifecycle reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with diesel from petroleum.
Diamond Green Diesel established its first Ecofining unit at its Norco facility in 2013 with a capacity of 10,000 bpd. In 2017, it announced an expansion of that capacity to 18,000 bpd. Ecofining technology is used in two commercial scale production facilities in the United States, and two in Europe.
Honeywell Green Diesel is a “Biomass-Based Diesel” under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard. This standard requires a minimum volume of transportation fuels sold in the U.S. to contain renewable fuel as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was jointly developed by UOP and Eni SpA to convert non-edible natural oils and animal fats into a diesel product that offers improved performance over biodiesel and petroleum-based diesel.
Diesel fuel produced by the Ecofining process has a cetane value of 80, compared with a cetane range of 40 to 60 found in diesel at the pump today. As a result, it makes an excellent blendstock for cheaper low-cetane diesel to meet transportation standards, and it performs well at cold or warm temperatures.
Ecofining technology also can produce renewable jet fuel that can be blended seamlessly with petroleum-based jet fuel. When used in up to a 50% blend with petroleum-based jet fuel, Honeywell Green Jet Fuel requires no changes to aircraft technology and meets all critical specifications for flight.