ExxonMobil’s majority-owned affiliate Imperial Oil will invest about $720 million (US$560 million) to move forward with construction of the largest renewable diesel facility in the country. (Earlier post.) The project at Imperial’s Strathcona refinery near Edmonton is expected to produce more than one billion liters of renewable diesel annually—about 20,000... Read more →

Strong demand for ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) in October, combined with reduced global production, has resulted in lower ULSD inventories in the United States, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). ULSD is the most widely consumed form of distillate fuel oil. Current inventories and the current estimate of... Read more →

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) will work with Wabtec, a leading manufacturer of freight locomotives, to develop the hardware and control strategies for a single-cylinder, dual-fuel engine to demonstrate the viability of using alternative fuels for locomotives. The research focuses on zero-carbon hydrogen... Read more →

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects that low inventories of distillate fuels, which are primarily consumed as diesel fuel and heating oil, will lead to high prices through early 2023. According to EIA’s November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), diesel prices will remain higher than $5 per gallon the remainder... Read more →

Neste and Rolls-Royce have agreed to build a strategic partnership on accelerating the use of renewable diesel as a lower-emission solution for diesel engines. Both parties share a common vision of renewable fuels playing a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in off-highway applications, such as construction and power... Read more →

Westport Fuel Systems and Scania AB announced preliminary engine test results of Westport’s H₂ HPDI fuel system for heavy-duty vehicle applications (earlier post). Westport’s HPDI fuel system technology enables heavy-duty trucks to operate on natural gas with the same power, torque, efficiency, and performance as diesel engines. H2 HPDI operates... Read more →

Engineers from UNSW Sydney (Australia) have successfully converted a diesel engine to run as a dual-fuel hydrogen-diesel engine, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 85% compared to conventional diesel. The team, led by Professor Shawn Kook from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, spent around 18 months developing the... Read more →

Raven SR, a renewable fuels company, and Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to integrate their respective technologies into an advanced system for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel. The resulting production platform will include Raven SR’s patented Steam/CO2 Reformer process (earlier post) and... Read more →

Rolls-Royce is releasing mtu rail engines for use with sustainable fuels. With synthetic diesel fuels of the EN15940 standard, CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 100% compared to fossil diesel. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO or renewable diesel), which is already commercially available today, reduces CO2 emissions by up... Read more →

ClearFlame Engine Technologies, a company developing net-zero engine technology (earlier post), has hit a number of key milestones through multiple partnerships with customers, manufacturers, and fuel providers. These achievements highlight the company’s ability to leverage existing infrastructure within the transportation sector, giving it a clear advantage to scale quickly and... Read more →

Ram Truck is offering consumers a final opportunity to order its Ram 1500 EcoDiesel model; production of the 2023 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel will conclude in January 2023. Introduced in 2014, with a significant upgrade integrated for the 2020 model year, the EcoDiesel V-6 engine provided a number of powertrain milestones.... Read more →

Aemetis, Inc., a renewable fuels company focused on negative carbon intensity products, announced that $7 billion of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel (RD) supply agreements have been signed with 10 airlines for a total of 916 million gallons of blended SAF. Previously, Aemetis announced a contract with a... Read more →

Imperial has signed a long-term contract with Air Products for the supply of low-carbon hydrogen for Imperial’s proposed renewable diesel complex at its Strathcona refinery near Edmonton, Alberta. (Earlier post.) Air Products will provide pipeline supply from its hydrogen plant under construction in Edmonton. Imperial will use Air Products’ low-carbon... Read more →

DAMEN Naval and Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems have signed a contract to deliver 16 mtu diesel generator sets, for the four new F126 Frigates for the German Navy. Although DAMEN and Rolls-Royce, whose business unit Power Systems is based in Friedrichshafen, Germany, have a long-standing cooperation in shipbuilding, this... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently previewed the Heavy-Duty Inspection and Maintenance Program (HD I/M), which is due to begin phasing in on 1 Jan 2023 (earlier post), at an enforcement truck event held at the Port of Los Angeles. CARB used the event, where more than 1,200 trucks... Read more →

BASF and Sulzer Chemtech (GTC Technology) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the goal of advancing technologies for renewable fuels and chemically recycled plastics that will further expand the partners’ portfolio of sustainable solutions. The companies agreed to enter a strategic partnership to reduce the carbon intensity of renewable... Read more →

Starting August 9, 2022, applications will be accepted in California for replacement of eligible Class 8 trucks with zero-emission technology. Approximately $9 million is available on a first-come, first-served basis to eligible applicants throughout California from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust for Class 8 zero-emission freight and port drayage trucks,... Read more →

FCA US LLC (FCA US), formerly Chrysler Group LLC, was sentenced in federal court in Detroit and ordered to pay a fine of $96,145,784 and a forfeiture money judgment of $203,572,892. The court also imposed a three-year term of organizational probation. FCA US had reached an agreement on the terms... Read more →

Toyota’s toughest, body-on-frame models in Europe are to be made compatible with HVO100 diesel, a non-fossil fuel made from 100% renewable sources such as waste cooking oil. Both the Land Cruiser and Hilux will join the Proace family of light commercial vehicles in being compatible with HVO100 diesel. HVO100 (hydrated... Read more →

Phillips 66 Company has applied for a California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Tier 2 fuel pathway for Renewable Diesel derived from distiller’s corn oil which is processed along with soybean oil and canola oil at its facility in Rodeo, California. The Rodeo facility produces renewable diesel as a primary... Read more →

Diesel is the predominant technology in commercial trucking, school, and transit bus sectors, according to the Diesel Technology Forum’s analysis of data sourced from S&P Global Mobility TIPNet data of vehicles in operation for Class 3-8 as of December 2021. This analysis found the following: Commercial Trucks: 76% of the... Read more →

OptiFuel Systems has signed a Collaboration Agreement with the Argentina Ministry of Transportation through Ferrocarriles Argentinos Sociedad del Estado (FASE). The objective of this agreement is to develop a project to repower and put into service 400 switcher and line-haul freight locomotives, all 100% powered by compressed natural gas (CNG)... Read more →

Honeywell announced that Turkish refiner Tüpraş will license Honeywell UOP Ecofining technology to produce biofuels from feedstocks such as used cooking oil and waste animal fat at their refinery in Izmir, Türkiye. The new Ecofining plant is being designed to convert approximately 8,300 barrels per day of waste feeds/feedstocks to... Read more →

MATHESON, the US affiliate of Nippon Sanso Holdings Corporation (NSHD), has signed a long-term supply agreement to meet hydrogen requirements for a 75,000 bpd refinery in Mobile, Alabama owned by Vertex Energy. The MATHESON Facility will have a nameplate capacity exceeding 30 mmscfd hydrogen production and the capability to process... Read more →

In Europe, Mazda announced that it will add an all-new e-Skyactiv D diesel engine to the Mazda CX-60 line-up in 2023, joining the PHEV CX-60, which is available to order now. Another demonstration of Mazda’s Multi-Solution Approach, the new diesel is designed to meet the needs of customers who want... Read more →

Australia-based Poseidon Marine H2’s technical partner Dynamic Efficiency has engaged Avesta Consulting to conduct a finite element analysis of its versatile marine technology which will allow boats to operate on multiple fuels, including hydrogen and diesel. With work already underway, Avesta Consulting is set to deliver the results in the... Read more →

Neste Corporation has made the final investment decision to invest into new renewable products production capacity in Rotterdam. The decision is based on demand for renewable products growing substantially with customers’ higher climate ambitions. Rotterdam NExBTL plant Neste’s current 1.4 million ton capacity for renewable products in Rotterdam is the... Read more →

After systematically studying multiple catalyst compositions, researchers at KAUST and Umicore have clarified the role of cerium (Ce) in Mn-based oxide catalysts for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx with NH3 at temperatures below 200 °C. An open-access paper on the study appears in Nature Communications. Recent developments in... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research. This post examines the recent changes in the costs of powering gasoline, diesel, and electric vehicles. The expectation was that the cost of electricity had recently increased much less than the costs of gasoline and diesel. The reason is that, in the United States,... Read more →

Cresta Funds Management (Cresta) has chosen Topsoe’s HydroFlex solution for revamping the Braya Renewable Fuels refinery (Braya) in Newfoundland, Canada. The refinery will produce up to 18,000 barrels per day of Renewable Diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) initially; the capacity will increase further in various stages of expansion. The... Read more →

Canada-based dynaCERT Inc. has sold seven of its HydraGEN on-board electrolysis units ( the HG1R, 4C and 6C units) which are to be installed in Peru, Argentina and Brazil in open-pit mines on various equipment, including Caterpillar 793 and 777 Haul Trucks and a large 4.5 MW diesel generator with... Read more →

On 16 May 2022, the average US on-highway retail diesel fuel price was $5.61 per gallon (gal)—a $2.00/gal increase from January 3, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Although retail diesel prices have increased across the entire United States, prices in the Northeast have increased the most and... Read more →

In 2010, researchers from the Beijing Institute of Technology proposed a new combustion system for diesel engines: the Double Swirl Combustion System (DSCS) (Li et al. 2010). Within the DSCS, the Double Swirl (DS) chamber is one of the most noticeable factors in the new system. The configuration of DS... Read more →

UK-based Clean Air Power has demonstrated a Freightliner Class 66 locomotive running on hydrogen to reduce its carbon emission output. Clean Air Power achieved this by fitting the Class 66 with its precision injection technology, allowing the two-stroke diesel locomotive to run on a combination of diesel, biogas and hydrogen.... Read more →

Parkland, an independent supplier and marketer of fuel and petroleum products and a leading convenience store operator, plans to increase renewable fuel production at its Burnaby Refinery in British Columbia. The company said it will expanding existing co-processing volumes to approximately 5,500 barrels per day, and build a stand-alone renewable... Read more →

Phillips 66 made a final investment decision Wednesday to move forward with Rodeo Renewed, the project to convert its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California, into one of the world’s largest renewable fuels facilities. The project, which recently received approval from Contra Costa County (earlier post), is expected to cost... Read more →

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) demonstrated the effectiveness of its patented and award-winning CAT-DEF technology during the WCX World Congress Experience in Detroit in April. CAT-DEF—Catalyzed Diesel Exhaust Fluid—is an SwRI-developed catalyst- and surfactant-modified diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) solution. The internally funded advancement successfully reduced heavy-duty diesel engine nitrogen oxide (NOx)... Read more →

Volvo Trucks has increased the shifting speed of its intelligent and automated I-Shift gearbox by up to 30%. The quicker response provides improved driveability and smoothness to the driving of both diesel and electric heavy-duty trucks. The significant driveability improvement, which has been added to drivelines at all emission levels,... Read more →

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the land-use permit necessary to reconfigure the San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo to produce renewable fuels. (Earlier post.) Under a permitting review process overseen by County leaders and under authority of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the plant can now... Read more →

ClearFlame Engine Technologies, a startup developing net-zero engine technology (earlier post), announced the publication of an independent study that finds ClearFlame’s technology could help fleet owners and other heavy-duty truck operators lower total costs while meeting sustainability goals sooner than currently available alternatives. The study was conducted by Gladstein, Neandross... Read more →

Refuel Energy Inc. is planning to build a 3,000 barrels per day (bpd) renewable fuel plant (Refuel YYZ) in Southern Ontario. Refuel YYZ will produce renewable diesel (RD), sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and renewable hydrogen for the domestic market. The proposed facility would supply the aviation and terrestrial fuel needs... Read more →

Achates Power has released initial in-use NOx measurements from the cleaner, heavy-duty diesel engine it developed in a project funded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and several partners. Achates Power previously announced the opposed-piston has entered fleet service with WALMART Corporation in a Peterbilt 579 tractor. (Earlier post.)... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) pathways for certain biofuels that are produced from canola/rapeseed oil (earlier post) and is providing an opportunity for comment on the Agency’s lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis of these pathways. With the approval, these fuel pathways... Read more →

Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and John Barrasso (R-WY) led their colleagues in introducing the Renewable Diesel and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Parity Act of 2022. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Steve Daines (R-MO). The bill would require the Department of Energy to... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Trucks is introducing the third generation of its OM 471 heavy-duty diesel engine this year; the engine will deliver increased fuel efficiency and compliance with the strictest emissions standards such as Euro VIe. The third generation of the OM 471 installed in the Mercedes-Benz Actros and the Mercedes-Benz Arocs... Read more →

Achates Power announced that the 10.6-liter, heavy-duty opposed-piston, three-cylinder diesel engine it developed in a project funded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and several partners (earlier post) has entered fleet service with WALMART Corporation in a Peterbilt 579 tractor. It is the only diesel engine operating on the... Read more →

Renewable Energy Group has introduced a line of branded fuel solutions, EnDura Fuels. This branded product launch supports Renewable Energy Group’s ongoing efforts to help the transport industry meet its sustainability and business growth objectives, while strengthening the company’s position in the marketplace. The EnDura Fuels line consists of five... Read more →

In its Annual Energy Outlook 2022 (AEO2022) Reference case, which reflects current laws and regulations, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that renewable diesel supply (domestic production and net imports) will exceed biodiesel supply in the near term. EIA projects that renewable diesel supply will increase to 130,000 barrels... Read more →

Wabtec and BNSF Railway are partnering on a new biofuel project aimed at quantifying the impact of alternative fuels on emissions, durability, and performance in Wabtec locomotives. BNSF and Wabtec will begin testing biofuel in the second quarter of this year. The two companies will demonstrate the performance of biodiesel... Read more →

At the International Engine Congress in Baden-Baden (Germany), Liebherr-Components AG and US-based Tula Technology presented the results of their joint study on heavy machinery. Based on simulations, Tula’s diesel Dynamic Skip Fire (dDSF) software (earlier post) allowed the reduction of NOx tailpipe emissions by 41% and CO2by 9.5%. For this... Read more →