ExxonMobil, one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products, has signed an agreement with Global Clean Energy Holdings to source renewable diesel from a converted refinery in Bakersfield, California. Global Clean Energy Holdings is a leading developer of sustainable, non-food energy crops for use in biofuels and has acquired the said California refinery through a financing partnership with Orion Energy Partners, GCM Grosvenor and Voya Investment Management.
According to this agreement, ExxonMobil will purchase 2.5 million barrels of renewable diesel annually for a period of five years starting 2022. This renewable diesel will be produced from Global Clean Energy’s patented varieties of camelina, a fast-growing, low input, dryland farmed rotation crop. The Bakersfield biorefinery is now being retooled so that it can produce renewable diesel from camelina, and various other non-petroleum feedstocks including used cooking oil, soybean oil, and distillers’ corn oil. The production of this renewable diesel is scheduled to start from 2022, following which ExxonMobil will supply it in California as well as other domestic and international markets.
Renewable diesel that is produced from various non-petroleum feedstocks can reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 80 per cent than those from petroleum-based diesel, according to California Air Resources Board statistics.