Chevron makes diesel, jet fuel from soybeans
by Garth Meyer If you flew out of LAX in late 2021 on Delta Airlines, chances are your plane burned fuel that was half petroleum-based and half soybean oil. It came from Chevron’s El Segundo refinery. Since then, Chevron El Segundo has expanded its biofuel production. It now supplies 100% renewable soybean oil truck diesel, known as R99, to its Southern California gas stations. “We’re supplanting crude oil with vegetable oil,” Chevron El Segundo Corporate Affairs Manager Jeff Wilson said at a November 3 press event. Soybean oil arrives at the refinery by rail and feeds into a “diesel hydrotreater.” Its spindly distillation columns and pressure vessels cover more than an acre. The soybean oil mixes with a proprietary pellet, causing a chemical reaction that converts it to diesel fuel. El Segundo has made more than 20 million gallons since August. “We’re taking a soybean molecule and converting it to a finished diesel molecule in a reactor,” said Steven Johnson, diesel hydrotreater project manager. “We’ve fueled up a lot of trucks in 100 percent renewable diesel.” CO2 emissions are cut by up to 47%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, compared to standard diesel. “It’s…
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