Valero hastens timeline on Port Arthur RD plant

Adds details behind shorter timeline.

Valero plans for a new renewable diesel plant in Port Arthur, Texas, to enter operations in the first half of 2023, ahead of its previous expectation for a second-half 2023 startup.

The new Texas site, DGD 3, is expected to increase renewable diesel production capacity by 470mn UGS/yr. The company is partnered in the Port Arthur plant and its other renewable diesel plants with Darling Ingredients.

Valero is also investing in a 400mn USG/yr expansion at its St Charles renewable diesel plant DGD 1 in Norco, Louisiana, that is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. That plant primarily uses cooking oil, distiller's corn oil and rendered animal fats for the production of the renewable fuel, which is especially coveted in markets with low carbon fuel programs. 
Work crews from that expansion project, called DGD 2, were held over to work on the structurally similar DGD3, which helped explain the accelerated timeline, said Valero senior vice president of alternative fuels Martin Parrish.

"I think one thing you have to remember is DGD 3 is pretty much a carbon copy of DGD 2, so that helps us," Parrish said. "I mean, all the major equipment, we changed a little bit, but just tweaks, so we had a lot of the engineering done sooner than you typically would have."

Concrete and structural steel is currently being put in place at DGD 3, in part because Valero had orders for steel in place before prices for the commodity surged during the pandemic, Parrish said.

Following both projects, Valero's production capacity for renewable diesel is expected to be around 1.2bn USG/yr.

The company posted record income of $248mn in its renewable diesel segment for the second quarter, eclipsing the previous record of $203mn set in the first quarter.

By Dylan Chase