Valley Pacific Petroleum buys 40 acres in Visalia Industrial Park

-May 3,3021-Valley Pacific Petroleum will bring in renewable diesel fuel as well as biodiesel by rail to the Visalia Industrial Park later this summer to supply the local region more directly, says CEO Nathan Crum.

The Stockton-based company recently purchased 40 acres from the Heller Co –  two parcels north of Goshen Ave and west of Shirk. The property has a rail spur and the company will set up a trans-loading facility to put the fuel on trucks for delivery to customers in Tulare County.

Crum says some fuel comes from California but most is shipped in from out of state. Valley Pacific has a number of card lock facilities in the area including one across the street on Goshen Ave.

Crum says instead of trucking the fuel from Fresno he can bring renewable fuel into Tulare County in volume by rail more cheaply and help the region’s air quality. As more users put renewables in their tanks, Crum says he promises residents will see “a significant air quality improvement here.” A common fuel is 20% biodiesel, used by trucking firms and by farmers to meet air quality requirements.

Valley Petroleum is also a fuel hauler for Chevron who is modifying their El Segundo plant to make more renewables as the state moves away from petroleum products.

“The times are changing and we are changing with it” he vows.

Crum notes that another company in the renewable business, Seaboard Energy, just announced the purchase of the Pacific Ethanol plant in Madera and will supply diesel renewables to customers nearby.

Seaboard is expected to retool the Madera plant to make renewable diesel products like they are doing in other Midwest locations.

Last year, Sacramento based Pacific Ethanol idled ethanol plants in Magic Valley, Idaho, Stockton, California and Madera and said they would sell or repurpose those three idle plants as part of its strategic alignment and new business focus. The company said any proceeds from the sale of the assets will be used to reduce debt, invest in core operations, or for general corporate purposes.

Then last October, they announced a strategic realignment to focus on specialty alcohols and essential ingredients and away from manufacturing ethanol.They renamed the company Alto Ingredients.

Seaboard will pay $28.3 million- $19.5 million in cash and $8.8 million in assumption of liabilities. The sale of the 40 million gallon per year facility is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

Pacific Ethanol launched their company with much promise in 2005 from Fresno and was led by former Secretary of State Bill Jones and the Koehler brothers. But the ethanol business was a tough one to make a profit in and then the pandemic shut down many plants including Pacific Ethanol’s facilities.

Making renewable diesel

Seaboard Energy California is part of Seaboard Energy, a division of Seaboard Foods and a wholly owned subsidiary of Seaboard Corp.

Seaboard Energy also this week announced it is building a renewable diesel plant in Hugoton, Kansas, US. The facility is being built at the former Abengoa ethanol plant site that was purchased in February 2019. Since that time, Seaboard Energy has recommissioned portions of the idle assets while simultaneously building the greenfield renewable diesel production facilities.

Seaboard Energy said it is developing a greenfield fat and oil pre-treatment plant, hydrogen plant and renewable diesel plant on the 800-acre site in Kansas. The site also is being used to blend and ship biodiesel from Seaboard Energy’s other biodiesel plants located in Guymon, Oklahoma and St. Joseph, Missouri.

Once construction is complete, the plant will have the capacity to produce 85 million gallons of renewable diesel annually along with the 8.5 million gallons of renewable naphtha. The renewable fuels will be primarily derived from local animal fats and vegetable oils.

California largest renewable diesel supplier, Bakersfield-based Crimson Renewables claims that CARB data indicates that biodiesel provided over 41% of California’s total reduction of 47.1 million metric tons in climate-changing gases from fuel use, more than any other fuel, and it has reduced emissions of toxic pollutants such as those that cause smog and make it difficult for many Americans to breathe. Moreover, the federal Environmental Protection Agency says that domestic biodiesel reduces carbon emissions up to 86% compared with petroleum.

Kern County has seen interest from investors in bioenergy projects says the Bakersfield Californian.

“Four new bioenergy proposals came to the attention of the Kern Economic Development Corp. in the last half of 2020, joining four other prospects under active consideration. Most of the projects would employ more than 100 workers. One would dwarf the others with as many as 1,390 jobs across 100 to 200 acres”

One is Global Clean Energy. ”Last year Torrance-based Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc. bought the former, 67,000-barrel-per-day refinery on Rosedale Highway and announced a $365 million project to reopen the plant by early 2022 with about 100 employees producing 10,000 barrels per day of biodiesel from cooking oil. It said the refinery will later make the product from a ground-cover plant called camelina.”