Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO) Biorefineries

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO) Biorefineries – The rise of renewable diesel

By Dani Morán - September 17, 2015

Publication date: 17/9/2015.

Last update: 17/11/2019.

Section: ADVANCED BIOFUELS

Series: HVO

- Hydrotreating(HVO) – Concepts, feedstocks and specifications

- Hydrotreating(HVO) – Advantages over FAME and properties

- Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO) Biorefineries – The rise of renewable diesel

- Posts: HVO

Technologies

Company	Technology
Axens	Vegan
Colabitoil	-
ENI and Honeywell UOP	Ecofining
Haldor Topsoe	Hydroflex
Neste	NEXBTL
REG	BioSynfining
Ryze Renewables	-
UPM Biofuels	UPM BioVerno
Other: ConocoPhillips, BP, PetroBras and Nippon Oil	Used for co-processing or at low-scale

Figure 1. HVO biorefinery of Neste in Singapore (extracted from Neste web page)

Operational HVO biorefineries

Location	Owner	Technology	Production capacity (Mtons/year)	Start-up
Kilpilahti, Porvoo (Finland)	Neste	NEXBTL	2 x 0.35	1st unit: 2007. 2nd unit: 2009.
Tuas Industrial Area, Singapore (Singapore)	Neste	NEXBTL	1	2010
Geismar, Louisiana (USA)	REG	BioSynfining	0.25	2010
Rotterdam (The Netherlands)	Neste	NEXBTL	1	2011
Norco, Louisiana (USA)	Diamond Green Diesel	Ecofining	0.88	2013
Porto Marghera, Venice (Italy)	ENI	Ecofining (revamping of a petroleum refinery)	0.36	June 2014
Lappeenranta (Finland)	UPM Biofuels	UPM BioVerno	0.1	January 2015
Paramount, California (USA)	World Energy	Ecofining (revamping of a petroleum refinery)	0.13	Early 2016
La Mède (France)	Total	Vegan (revamping of a petroleum refinery)	0.5	June 2019
Gela (Italy)	ENI	Ecofining (revamping of a petroleum refinery)	0.75	August 2019
Portugal	Belem Bioenergia (Petrobras and Galp) ^{[Note 1]}	HBIO (developed by Petrobras)	0.27	?
China	Sinopec ^{[Note 1]}	-	0.02	?
TOTAL CAPACITY			5.29 (5.58)
[Note 1] There is a lack of reliable sources of information about this facility. [Note 2] Three Chinese companies (Yangzhou Jianyuan Biotechnology Co Ltd; ECO Biochemical Technology Co Ltd; Hainan Huanyu New Energy Co Ltd) have been certified as producing HVO diesel which meets the EU biofuel standards set out in the Renewable Energy Directive. No information available about their facilities and production capacities. [Note 3] Pilot and experimental facilities have not been taken into account to prepare this table.

Operational plants co-processing HVO

Location	Owner	Production capacity (Mtons/year)
Spain	Cepsa (several refineries) Repsol (several refineries)	0.38 ^{[Note 1]}
Gothenburg (Sweden)	Preem	0.17
Sines (Portugal)	Galp	0.04
TOTAL CAPACITY		0.59
[Note 1] Certifiable total production of HVO in Spain in 2018. Data taken from the statistical report of the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia.

HVO biorefineries under construction and planned

Location	Owner	Technology	Production capacity (Mtons/year)	Status
Plaquemine, Louisiana (USA)	Emerald Biofuels ^{[Note 1]}	Ecofining	0.28	Project announced in 2012 but its possible completion date is now unknown.
Fujairah (UAE)	Petrixo ^{[Note 1]}	Ecofining	0.5	In 2015, it was announced the expected start-up by 2017 but it seems that the works have not yet started.
Lawrence County, Ohio (USA)	SG Preston ^{[Note 1]}	Ecofining	0.4	Project announced in 2014 but its possible completion date is now unknown.
Reno, Nevada (USA)	Ryze Renewables	- (revamping of an existing unit)	0.15	Under construction.
Las Vegas, Nevada (USA)	Ryze Renewables	- (revamping of an existing unit)	0.30	Under construction.
Caparroso (Navarre, Spain)	Extracte Lur	- (revamping of an existing unit)	0.04	Under construction.
Dickinson, North Dakota (USA)	Andeavor	Hydroflex (revamping of an existing unit)	0.15 ^{[Note 2]}	Under construction. Late 2020.
Port Westward Industrial Park, Oregon (USA)	NEXT Renewable Fuels	Ecofining	1.5	Planned. 2021.
Adjacent to the Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery in Washington state (USA)	Phillips 66 and REG	BioSynfining	0.25 ^{[Note 3]}	Planned. 2021.
Gothenburg (Sweden)	St1	Ecofining	0.2	Planned. 2022.
Banks of the Paraguay River (Paraguay)	ECB Group (Omega Green Project)	Ecofining	0.8	Planned. 2022.
Delfzijl (Netherlands).	KLM, SkyNRG and SHV (DSL-01 project)	Hydroflex	0.1	Planned. 2022.
Refinery in the Valle de Escombreras (Murcia, Spain).	Repsol	-	0.25	Planned. 2023.
Germany	Colabitoil	-	1.5	Planned. 2024.
TOTAL CAPACITY			5.24 (6.42)
[Note 1] The status of this project is uncertain. [Note 2] It is an estimation considering the processing capacity. The production capacity has not been unveiled. [Note 3] It is an estimation considering the production capacity of the HVO biorefinery which REG owns in Geismar. The production has not been unveiled.

HVO biorefineries expansions

Location	Owner	Technology	Production capacity (Mtons/year)	Status
Eliminating bottlenecks of the existing biorefineries	Neste	NEXBTL	0.3 + 0.2	Under construction. 1^st stage: 2020 2^nd stage: 2022.
Gothenburg (Sweden)	Preem	-	0.84	Under construction. 2020.
Porto Marghera, Venice (Italy)	ENI	Ecofining	0.2	Under construction. 2021.
Norco, Louisiana (USA)	Diamond Green Diesel	Ecofining	1.2	Under construction. 2021.
Tuas Industrial Area, Singapore (Singapore)	Neste	NEXBTL	1.3	Under construction. 2022.
TOTAL CAPACITY			4.04