The baseline carbon intensity for diesel in the LCFS lookup table is 98.03 gCO₂e/MJ.

North American tallow RD. Neste Oil Singapore Pte Ltd. produces approximately 250 million gallons of renewable diesel (RD) from multiple feedstocks at its plant in Singapore. Neste applied for a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) pathway covering the RD produced from North American tallow at its Singapore plant.

This feedstock is rendered in North America and shipped by ocean tanker an estimated 7,741 nautical miles to the Neste plant. The energy consumption data for the rendering process was taken from the existing LCFS pathway for RD produced in California from US-sourced tallow. (CI = 39.33 gCO₂e/MJ, or 19.65 gCO₂e/MJ for a lower-energy rendering technology; rendering is the most GHG-intensive portion of the process.)

Once the rendered tallow has been converted to renewable diesel, the finished fuel is transported an estimated 7,677 nautical miles by ocean tanker to Los Angeles.

Neste’s process generates a propane-rich off-gas as a co-product. The high pressure portion of this off-gas (both high- and low-pressure gas is generated) is conveyed via a dedicated pipeline to a hydrogen plant located on Jurong Island. There it displaces natural gas that would otherwise have been consumed as both a process fuel and a feedstock at the steam-methane reformer. The hydrogen supplied at the Jurong Island plant is piped back to the Neste plant where it is used for hydrotreatment. The low-pressure propane-rich off-gas is sent to a natural gas steam boiler that provides process heat to the RD plant.

Neste calculated the pathway carbon intensity (CI) to be 49.49 gCO₂e/MJ. This includes a 3.09 gCO₂e/MJ credit for the natural gas displaced by the propane-rich off-gas from the RD plant. This proposed carbon intensity value includes feedstock rendering; transportation of the rendered feedstock to the refinery; renewable diesel production; finished fuel transportation to California; and vehicle tailpipe emissions. Staff recommends that Neste Oil’s application for the pathway be approved.

In March 2013, Neste had submitted another application for RD from Australian tallow, produced at Singapore, with a CI of 33.46 gCO₂e/MJ.

Fish oil. Neste also applied for a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) pathway covering the RD produced from Southeast Asian fish oil at the Singapore plant. This feedstock is rendered in Vietnam and shipped by truck approximately 50 miles to the Cantho terminals and transferred to an ocean tanker. The ocean tanker then travels an estimated 585 nautical miles to the Neste plant.

Since rendering energy consumption data is not readily available, Neste used a study by Enerfish. Once the rendered tallow has been converted to renewable diesel, the finished fuel is transported an estimated 7,677 nautical miles by ocean tanker to Los Angeles.

Neste calculated its pathway CI to be 30.48 gCO₂e/MJ, including the 3.09 gCO₂e/MJ credit for natural gas displacement as above. Staff also recommended that this pathway be approved.