Construction on a $330 million renewable diesel plant at the Valero Norco refinery has begun and the facility should be completed and operating by the end of 2012.
Ron Guillory, plant spokesman, said that the early phases of construction began this summer.
“We’re still in the civil engineering phase, which means we’re driving piles and building foundations – there are a lot of pilings to be driven, in the thousands,” he said. “It moves slow at this phase, but it’s on schedule and we do plan to finish and have it started up by the end of 2012.
“You can’t see the progress until we start putting steel up.”
The plant is a joint venture between Valero and Darling International Inc. Once complete, the facility will have the capacity to produce 137 million gallons of green diesel per year. The fuel will be produced primarily from animal fats and used cooking oil, which Darling International will provide. This fuel will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 80 percent over conventional petroleum-based diesel.
The project will be the first of its kind in the country to use an innovative hydrotreating/isomerization process from Universal Oil Products that is known as “Ecofining” and a pretreatment process from Desmet Ballestra Group, which converts processed animal fats into high-quality diesel.
Valero began moving forward on the project in January after receiving federal backing in the form of a $241 million loan guarantee. The project is coupled with a $1.2 billion upgrade the company announced a few years ago.
The upgrade will include the addition of a hydrocracker and will create around 30 permanent jobs when complete. The diesel plant will create about 40 permanent jobs once completed.
But even more local jobs will be created during the building phase of the two projects.
“Between those two projects…at the peak of construction there will be close to 2,000 people working here, conservatively,” Guillory said. So far, the plant has hired 600 workers for construction purposes.
The green diesel project will have a national impact as well.
“This announcement by the Department of Energy demonstrates the dedication of the Obama administration to building a robust, domestic renewable fuels industry,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Made-in-America biofuels will increase our energy security, economic security and environmental security – while creating jobs – and help build a brighter future for all Americans.”
Editor Jonathan Menard contributed to this report.
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