Diamond Green Diesel to build new Port Arthur plant

Update: In May 2021, Howard Midstream Energy Partners noted plans to expand its midstream terminal operations in Port Arthur, Tex., to support Diamond Green Diesel Holdings's construction of a grassroots 470-million gal/year renewable diesel plant at Valero’s Port Arthur refinery (OGJ Online, May 17, 2021).

Diamond Green Diesel Holdings LLC (DGD)—a 50-50 joint venture of Valero Energy Corp. and Darling Ingredients Inc.—is building a grassroots 470-million gal/year renewable diesel plant at Valero’s 395,000-b/d refinery in Port Arthur, Tex., about 90 miles east of Houston along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Approved by both companies’ boards of directors in late-January 2021, the new renewable diesel plant is scheduled to be completed and begin commercial operation in second-half 2023, Valero and Darling said in a joint release.

At a currently estimated construction cost of $1.45 billion to be split equally between the JV partners and funded from internal cash flows provided by DGD, the new Port Arthur plant—once completed and when combined with the partners’ previously announced expansion of the operator’s 290-million gal/year renewable diesel plant in Norco, La.—will increase DGD’s total renewable diesel and renewable naphtha production capacities to 1.2 billion gal/year and 50 million gal/year, according to the JV.

"The [Port Arthur] project is moving forward immediately, and we fully plan to utilize the first mover advantage DGD has in North America as we believe Darling's vertical integration coupled with Valero's refining expertise are key to providing low-carbon feedstocks to the DGD renewable diesel platform," said Randall C. Stuewe, Darling Ingredients’ chairman and chief executive officer.

For Valero, the Port Arthur renewables project comes as part of the company’s plan to increase its existing “long-term competitive advantage in low-carbon transportation fuels” amid ongoing demand for renewable fuels as low-carbon fuel policies continue to expand globally, according to Joe Gorder, Valero’s chairman and CEO. 

Further details regarding the Port Arthur renewable diesel plant—including the proposed process technology to be implemented and feedstock to be processed—were not disclosed.

Norco plant expansion

DGD most recently let a contract to Honeywell UOP LLC to license and implement its proprietary Ecofining process technology for a 30,000-b/d renewable diesel production train now under construction at the operator’s Norco renewable diesel plant (OGJ Online, Nov. 2, 2020; Apr. 14, 2020).

Scheduled to be completed during fourth-quarter 2021, Norco’s new 400-million gal/year renewable diesel plant—which will become the site’s second production train—will include a renewable naphtha finishing installation adjacent to the site’s existing Train 1 (OGJ, Oct. 5, 2020, p. 38).

In 2019, the JV partners confirmed they would invest a combined $1.1 billion to expand DGD’s Norco plant—already North America’s largest renewable diesel plant—to make it the second-largest plant of its kind in the world (OGJ Online, May 6, 2019; Apr. 25, 2019).

DGD’s Norco plant converts inedible oils and other waste feedstocks into Honeywell Green Diesel, a diesel fuel that—chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel—can be used as a drop-in replacement in diesel-powered vehicles with no engine modifications and features up to an 80% lifecycle reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with conventional petroleum-based diesel.