The Potential – and Challenges – of Renewable Diesel Fuel for Heavy-Duty Vehicles
By Jon Leonard and Patrick Couch
What is Renewable Diesel?
Renewable diesel (RD) is an emerging replacement fuel for today’s heavy-duty diesel engines. It is chemically identical to conventional (fossil) diesel fuel, but RD is produced from 100 percent renewable feedstock and contains no fossil carbon. This makes RD a potentially low greenhouse gas (GHG) alternative to conventional diesel. Moreover, RD is a “drop-in” diesel substitute. It can be produced in the same facilities as conventional diesel; transported, stored and dispensed in the same existing network; and combusted in the same engines.
It is important to note that RD is not “biodiesel.” While these two biofuels use similar feedstock, they differ in production and use characteristics. RD can be produced through multiple processes; the predominant pathway is to hydrotreat fats, oils and esters. Biodiesel is solely produced through esterification of fats and oils. RD is free of the ester compounds found in biodiesel, and it has a much lower aromatic content. An important advantage of RD is that it has no “blend wall.” Unlike biodiesel, high-level blends of RD (including 100 percent) are approved for use in diesel engines by most heavy-duty engine manufacturers. And, as further described below, the use of RD in diesel engines provides important environmental benefits compared to both conventional diesel and biodiesel.
Production of RD for U.S. Transportation Markets
RD is produced using various renewable feedstock that include palm oil, palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD; a byproduct from the physical refining of palm oil), tallow (i.e., rendered animal fat), and used cooking oil. Neste (formerly Neste Oil) is currently the world’s largest RD producer. Neste makes approximately 680 million RD gallons per year at its worldwide facilities (Finland, the Netherlands and Singapore). Approximately half of this is exported to U.S. markets. Currently, U.S. production of RD is about 200 million gallons per year.
One of the largest U.S. markets for RD is California’s vast heavy-duty transportation sector, where it is used as a lower-carbon alternative to conventional diesel. RD displaces only a small fraction of California’s annual fossil diesel consumption, which totals approximately 3.6 billion gallons per year. However, the use of RD to power HDVs is growing in California and nationwide, and demand is beginning to exceed the available supply. Several domestic RD producers have initiated efforts to produce and sell RD in California. California state funds are being allocated to build local production facilities, and/or transform existing diesel or biodiesel production facilities over to RD production. By 2020, such facilities are expected to provide several hundred million additional gallons of in-state RD production for consumption in California’s heavy-duty diesel vehicle and equipment markets.
What Are the Environmental Benefits?
RD’s most-compelling environmental benefit is its ability to provide major reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when combusted in diesel engines, as a replacement for conventional diesel. According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the “carbon intensity” of RD ranges from 50 to 85 percent lower than baseline diesel fuel. Carbon intensity is a measure of the weighted potency of GHG emissions that are emitted when a diesel engine combusts RD instead of the baseline fuel choice (fossil diesel). However, the choice of feedstocks used to produce RD can have a significant impact on the carbon intensity and GHG emissions benefits of RD. Palm oil feedstocks are of particular concern, having been linked to significant land use impacts including deforestation to provide land to grow and farm the palm oil.
RD can also help improve local air quality. Based on limited data, CARB has determined that 100 percent RD can decrease oxides of nitrogen (“NOx”) by roughly 10 percent when replacing conventional diesel fuel in existing, older heavy-duty engines (i.e., those that don’t have state-of-the-art emission controls). NOx emissions are the primary precursor of ground-level ozone (photochemical smog). NOx also forms secondary particulate matter (“PM2.5”) in the atmosphere after its release. Thus, NOx control is the key to restoring healthy air quality in smog-impacted urban areas. In addition, preliminary data indicate RD can reduce the mass of particulate emissions directly emitted from older diesel engines, by about 30 percent. However, when used in newer engines/vehicles (e.g., 2010 compliant diesel engines), the NOx-and PM-reduction benefits of combusting RD in a diesel engine are likely to be reduced significantly.
Ultimately, RD’s big-picture benefit is its potential to help manufacturers develop “next-generation” ultra-clean heavy-duty diesel engines. To achieve NOx-reduction goals in Southern California and other regions of the U.S. —as needed to attain National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone — it will be necessary to rapidly phase-in HDVs powered by engines emitting at “near-zero” NOx levels, while also providing very low GHG emissions. No heavy-duty diesel engine (using conventional or renewable diesel) has yet been certified to achieve near-zero NOx levels. This will be challenging, as engine manufacturers have noted that significant “NOx-GHG” tradeoff issues must be resolved before heavy-duty diesel engines can achieve this important objective. Notably, heavy-duty natural gas engine technology using renewable natural gas has already been certified by CARB and EPA, and heavy-duty NGVs using this fuel-engine technology are being commercially launched in 2016.
Do Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle OEMs Support RD for Their Products?
The fact that pure (100%) RD is a drop-in, market-ready replacement for petroleum-based diesel has been formally corroborated by at least two major manufacturers of heavy-duty engines and trucks. Volvo Trucks North America conducted truck and engine testing on RD, and announced in 2015 that it has approved use of RD in all of its proprietary engines. Volvo indicated there is “no risk” that end users will lose their warranty coverage on any of their heavy-duty truck and engine combinations as the result of using RD. Mack Trucks (owned by Volvo) has also “signed off” on the use of renewable diesel fuel in all its diesel engines, after conducting extensive truck and engine testing.
Other heavy-duty engine manufacturers are likely to fully embrace the use of RD in their diesel engines, but to date they have not formally approved its use. Cummins Engine Company is reportedly conducting extensive testing on RD, and intends to soon announce its findings.
Higher Current Costs, but Comparable Price
Like most renewable fuels, RD costs more to produce than the fossil diesel it replaces. However, production of RD and its use as a transportation fuel generates cost offsets under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In part, this has helped numerous heavy-duty fleets purchase RD at, or below, the price of conventional diesel. It is also likely that RD is currently being sold at “loss-leader pricing” by suppliers that seek to build market momentum. This may be the case, for example, with Propel Fuels selling its “Diesel HPR” (High Performance Renewable) for a price that is slightly less than conventional diesel, at 31 retail stations in northern and southern California.
Longer term, it’s unclear if the higher production costs of RD will translate to higher prices at the pump, and hinder its broad-scale market acceptance. This in part depends on the sustainability of programs like the LCFS and RFS, which monetize RD’s benefits as an alternative to conventional diesel. It also depends on whether conventional diesel is phased out in favor of RD, in states like California that are aggressively seeking large and rapid GHG reductions.
Which HDV Fleets Are Using RD?
There are numerous examples of major HDV fleets making the switch over to RD. For example:
In July 2015, United Parcel Services (UPS) announced that it will buy as much as 46 million gallons of RD over the next three years. UPS has set a goal to displace 12 percent of its petroleum-based fuels in its ground fleet by the end of 2017. However, UPS executives have expressed strong concern that they “can’t get enough” RD to meet their fleet’s needs.
The City of San Francisco will use 4.9M gallons of RD each year at all 53 of its fueling sites to fill 2,000 HDVS. Oakland and Walnut Creek are doing the same. Oakland plans to start with 230,000 gallons of RD to fuel 250 vehicles.
The Eugene Water & Electric Board in Oregon has switched to RD from biodiesel, and now uses about 6,100 gallons of RD per month. Fleet managers note that the use of RD has resulted in less-frequent need to undergo regeneration of the diesel particulate filters on their HDV fleet.
What is the Prognosis for RD Use in America’s Transportation Sector?
The state of California has adopted very aggressive goals to displace conventional diesel with RD and other low-carbon-intensity renewable fuels. By 2031 it’s expected that approximately one billion RD gallons per year could be needed in California alone. The major impediment to meeting this growing demand is the lack of current, cost-competitive domestic RD production using environmentally benign feedstock. There are concerns about the ability of RD producers to ramp-up production to meet additional demand, while continuing to overly rely on certain feedstock.
In addition to supply issues, further research is needed to fully characterize how RD affects emissions in HDVs. Currently, insufficient data and information exist on RD’s effects on emissions as a function vehicle age and of the type of emissions control equipment included. Notably, the HDV and diesel engine industries have not yet fully embraced use of RD in their products, although it appears that unanimous “buy off” on RD is imminent, given that RD is chemically and structurally identical to conventional diesel.
The bottom line is this: RD is an environmentally benign, highly promising alternative to fossil diesel. It shows great potential for expanded use in California and nationally as a means to deliver major reductions in both smog-precursor and GHG emissions. Consumption of RD by on-road HDV fleets is growing, and its viability for off-road applications such as marine vessels and locomotives is now being demonstrated. However, numerous supply and engine technology issues will need to be successfully addressed before RD is likely to significantly dent America’s huge diesel market, which annually consumes about 40 billion gallons for on-road HDVs alone.
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Jon Leonard is the Senior Vice President at Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA). Patrick Couch is the Vice President of Technical Services at GNA. Jon and Patrick are now initiating a new government-funded white paper about Renewable Diesel.
[Updated Jan. 2017: Article was revised to reflect the concern of using palm oil feedstocks, which have significant land use impacts.]
1. Terms of Use
These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) govern your access and use of the VW Funding 360 Portal (the “VW Portal”), a proprietary website and subscription-based online tool developed and maintained by Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (“GNA”) in order to provide aggregated summary information and intelligence gained by GNA from the Beneficiary Mitigation Plans and others sources. These Terms govern your personal, lawful, non-exclusive, and non-commercial use of the information, tools, features, and functionality provided in the VW Portal and constitute an agreement concerning your legal rights and obligations with respect to the VW Portal and other information and data provided by or on behalf of GNA in connection with the VW Portal. Please read these Terms carefully before subscribing to access the VW Portal or using this website.
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This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ (PII) is being used online. PII, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.
Information We Collect
GNA collects information to provide better services to our clients, vendors, attendees, and e-newsletter subscribers.
We collect information in two ways:
Information you give us. For example, when you register for one of our events or sign up for one of our e-newsletters, we ask you for your contact information.
Information we get from your use of our services. When you view content provided by GNA, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include:
Details of how you used our website, such as your search queries.
To update your email subscription preferences, click here.
How We Use Information We Collect
We use the information we collect from all of our services to maintain and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect GNA and our website users.
If you decide to opt-in to our mailing list, you may receive emails about our services and events, company announcements, and related product or service information, etc. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include an unsubscribe function at the bottom of every GNA-produced email.
We use information collected from cookies and other technologies to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services.
Transparency and choice
People have different privacy concerns. Our goal is to be clear about what information we collect, so that you can make meaningful choices about how it is used. You may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us.
Information security
We work hard to protect GNA and our users from unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of information we hold. In particular:
We encrypt many of our websites and services using SSL.
We review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
Changes
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. GNA reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove any portion of these terms in whole or in part, at any time and without notice.
Do we use ‘cookies’?
Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
We use cookies to understand and save user’s preferences for future visits.
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since browser is a little different, look at your browser’s Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.
If you turn cookies off, some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly. It won’t affect the user’s experience that make your site experience more efficient and may not function properly.
Third-party disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information unless we provide users with advance notice. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release information when it’s release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property or safety.
However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Third-party links
We do not include or offer third-party products or services on our website.
We have not enabled Google AdSense on our site but we may do so in the future.
General Data Protection Regulation
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to protect the privacy of persons in the European Union and give them control over how their personal data is process, collected, stored, and used.
To be in accordance with GDPR, we agree to the following:
To only collect personal data in order to better services to our clients, vendors, attendees, and e-newsletter subscribers
To never sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information unless we provide advance notice
To provide individuals the right to request information being held about them
To erase all personal data stored about an individual if the user makes a request to do so
California Online Privacy Protection Act
CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law’s reach stretches well beyond California to require any person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting Personally Identifiable Information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared. – See more at: http://consumercal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/#sthash.0FdRbT51.dpuf
According to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:
Users can visit our site anonymously. Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page or as a minimum, on the first significant page after entering our website.
Our Privacy Policy link includes the word ‘Privacy’ and can easily be found on the page specified above.
You will be notified of any Privacy Policy changes:
On our Privacy Policy Page
Can change your personal information:
By emailing us
By logging in to your account
How does our site handle Do Not Track signals?
We honor Do Not Track signals and Do Not Track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place.
Does our site allow third-party behavioral tracking?
It’s also important to note that we do not allow third-party behavioral tracking
COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)
When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States’ consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children’s privacy and safety online.
We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13 years old.
Fair Information Practices
The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.
In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:
We will notify you via email
Within 7 business days
We will notify the users via in-site notification
Within 7 business days
We also agree to the Individual Redress Principle which requires that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.
CAN SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
We collect your email address in order to:
Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions
Process orders and to send information and updates pertaining to orders.
Send you additional information related to your product and/or service
Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.
To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:
Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.
Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us atinfo@gladstein.org and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us using the information below.
2525 Ocean Park Blvd
Santa Monica, California 90405
United States
info@gladstein.org
310-314-1934
