Steven J. Levy (Sprague), Jacob Ashby (New York State Senator), John T. McDonald III (New York State Assembly Member), and Julie Tighe (President, NYLCV) in front of a Sprague truck powered by renewable diesel. (Photo courtesy of NYLCV)

Sprague Energy of New York made low-carbon renewable diesel available at its Rensselaer, NY terminal in June of 2024 to trucking companies in the region. The New York League of Conservation Voters held a press conference to celebrate the availability of the renewable fuel in upstate New York.

Finland’s Neste is the world’s lardegest renewable diesel producer with production facilities around the world, including Poorvoo, Finland, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Singapore. The refineries use a variety of feedstocks including used cooking oil, tallow, as well as some purpose-grown feedstock crops. Notably, they reduced the use of controversial palm oil to zero in 2023. Large US producers include Diamond Green Diesel a joint venture between Darling, a leading used cooking oil collector, and Valero petroleum, with plants in Louisiana and Texas that produce 1.2 million gallons annually. Oil giant Chevron acquired Renewable Energy Group in 2022 and currently operates nine biodiesel and renewable diesel plants around the country, including its 340 million gallon per year renewable diesel facility in Geismar, Louisiana.

Renewable diesel and biodiesel are both made from renewable materials: used cooking oil, vegetable oil and/or animal fats using different processes. See the sidebar on this page for a comparison of biodiesel and renewable diesel.

Where Can I Get Renewable Diesel for My Vehicle?

Wever Petroleum in Mechanicville, NY makes renewable diesel available to commercial customers, including regional farms. Joe Alonzo, Wever’s president, reports that his trucks fueled with renewable diesel require less maintenance, and even though temperatures dropped to minus 10 F, there were no clogging issues in January and Wever has not had to change their fuel filters this season. Additionally, because renewable diesel burns so much cleaner than petro-diesel, the engines do not go into “regeneration mode” to clear out exhaust particulate filters, thereby saving fuel.

Unfortunately, there are no renewable diesel retail service station outlets yet in G.E.T.’s readership area. Nick Skally, Managing Director, Marketing for Sprague Energy said they were the first to make renewable diesel available east of the Mississippi by providing renewable diesel to a Sonomax retail service station in Brooklyn, NY in January 2024, and to the Bronx’s JK Petroleum Station in Hunts Point he Bronx in October, but there’s no word about when renewable diesel will be available for retail consumers elsewhere in New York.

By contrast, renewable diesel is widely available in California where the fuel enjoys a low Carbon Intensity rating and high carbon credit value. Recent data shows renewables now constitute 65% of all distillate transportation fuels consumed in California, with market share growing in Oregon and Washington states as well. Users there report less tail-pipe smoke and improved mileage over petro-diesel. Biodiesel, however, is available in Bioheat® blended with petro-based heating oil from many providers in our readership area. See the article on Bioheat on page_X_ for more information.

On a positive note, New York announced in December 2024 the availability of renewable diesel to all Office of General Services contract users, and has made renewable diesel available in the Capital Region for its fleet and the fleets of other state agencies at the W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany.

What differences do biodiesel and renewable diesel make?

As with so many renewable fuels, including biogas and ethanol, the consumption of bio-based versions is small compared to the current consumption of petroleum-based fuels. The U.S. consumes around 48 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year, so the entire 3.1 billion gallons of biodiesel and renewable diesel produced in the US represents 6% or so. Given that the carbon intensity of biodiesel is around 30, and renewable diesel between 32 and 42, replacing traditional diesel (carbon intensity of 100.45) each gallon replaced represents a 2 to 3 times reduction in GHG emissions. See the Biogas article on page 24 for an explanation of carbon intensity.

Replacing almost any portion of fossil-based fuel with bio-sourced fuel is beneficial, and except for vehicles and equipment available in electric versions, are often the best choice from climate-change mitigation and environmental perspectives. Check out greenenergytimes.org to see recently available heavier-duty electric vehicles.

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