Blue hydrogen and vegetable oil | Exxon subsidiary to invest $560m in new Canadian 'renewable diesel' plant
Imperial Oil will produce 20,000 barrels of the drop-in fuel per day at its Strathcona refinery in Edmonton, Alberta
Imperial Oil, a Canadian company majority owned by ExxonMobil, is to invest about $560m in a new facility in Alberta, Canada, that will produce 20,000 barrels of “renewable diesel” per day from blue hydrogen and vegetable oil.
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
Of course, a true net-zero design would remove the remaining 5% of CO2 from the air, rather than just offsetting non-renewable electricity.
The blue hydrogen will then be combined with locally sourced “biofeedstock” — which it has not defined but is typically used cooking oil and maybe animal fats — at Imperial’s Strathcona oil refinery in Edmonton to produce “renewable diesel”, otherwise known as hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO).
This is a “drop-in fuel” that is chemically the same as conventional diesel and therefore can be dropped in as a direct replacement.
“Site preparation and initial construction are underway. Renewable diesel production is expected to start in 2025.”
However, ExxonMobil’s use of the word “renewable” is contentious as the hydrogen used in the process is derived from fossil fuel, rather than renewable energy.
“The facility is a part of the corporation’s plans through 2027 to invest approximately $17bn in lower-emission initiatives,” added the press release.
ExxonMobil has so far steered clear of making actual “green” investments, such as in renewable energy, preferring instead to focus on “lower-emission” fossil-fuel-related activities, such as carbon capture and storage, and more speculative technologies such as direct-air capture and nuclear fusion.
It has not included Scope 3 emissions — those resulting from the end use of its fossil-fuel products — which accounts for the vast majority of its overall carbon footprint.