LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UrbanX Renewables Group of Long Beach, CA, executed its front-end engineering design contract, an essential step for building the state’s first facility producing ultra-low carbon renewable diesel, a fuel essentially indistinguishable from the petroleum product it is replacing.
The company will produce renewable diesel from vegetable oil, fats and waste cooking oils through a proprietary process. Its fuel performs better than traditional diesel and can be used without engine or infrastructure modifications.
“This is the right fuel at the right time,” according to Bruce Melgar, UrbanX president. “Its benefits to the environment and its reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are important climate change advantages, as well as larger ecological gains,” he said. “For example, renewable diesel cuts lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions up to 85%.”
Additionally, renewable diesel lowers tailpipe emissions such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, total hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxide.
UrbanX has a long history in sustainable technology, from harvesting of greases from wastewater streams to the production of biofuels.
The facility will be in the Bakersfield area and will refine 5,300 barrels per day, generating over 75 million gallons per year of renewable diesel. But it can also yield a prime sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Melgar said that today’s stiff environmental challenges require exceptional responses, such as the high-quality transportation fuel UrbanX will produce from integrated waste-based feedstock.
“It has taken a breakthrough technology and a seasoned team to get to this point,” he added, citing Chevron Lummus Global’s patented Isoconversion process which produces the cleaner fuel from waste feedstock, in a joint development with Applied Research Associates. UrbanX holds a license for the innovative technology.
UrbanX’s distinctive methodology first produces a renewable crude and then refines it into renewable diesel, standing apart from other renewable fuel products.
Melgar refers to Dr. Addison Stark, the company’s chief technical officer and vice president of research and development, who maintains the patented process used mimics mother nature. “Instead of requiring millions of years to form the crude, we do it in about four hours,” he said. Petroleum is accepted to be the transformed remains of long dead organisms created over time with heat and pressure.
Further, continued Melgar, “Our process is feedstock flexible and can even refine clean fuel from bottom of the barrel materials.”
Also partnering with UrbanX is Total-Western, Paramount, a long-standing industrial contractor who will assist with the construction of the manufacturing plant.
Joining the project is Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd., making its first entry into the U.S. plant market with its Front-End Engineering Design contract.
Another key player is IQA Solutions of Long Beach, especially skilled in the refining and petrochemical fields, to provide engineering and design services.
Local employment and economic benefits from supply-side activities for Kern County will also occur, Melgar noted, pointing to the available skilled workforce in the area, a major reason why UrbanX selected the area for its facility.
The company will soon disclose the exact plant location.
