Fishy Fuel: Turning Fish Grease Into Diesel

Fishy Fuel: Turning Fish Grease Into Diesel

Source: wweek

9/28/2022

Credit: Alex Blais

At the Quincy Grange Hall near Clatskanie last week, 75 farmers and residents of the lowlands along the Columbia River debated the future of a clean-fuels project that could slash carbon emissions by 7 million metric tons a year.

That’s the equivalent of taking a million cars off Oregon roads.

If the proposed refinery sold all of its green output in Oregon alone, the benefit would exceed the state’s goal of sequestering 5 million tons of CO2 a year by 2030.

The seemingly magical plant, 63 miles northwest of Portland and proposed by a startup called Next Renewable Fuels, is designed to produce “renewable diesel,” a clean-burning alternative to petroleum that can be made from discarded vegetable oil, wood waste and animal carcasses. It’s like biodiesel but refined differently, so it can be pumped into an 18-wheeler with no modifications. Using it cuts carbon emissions by 60%, and it doesn’t produce as much soot.