BP Australia to produce renewable diesel fuel from tallow, hydrogen

BP is set to become the first company in Australia to produce diesel fuel with a renewable component that is chemically identical to regular diesel fuel. The technology, to be launched later this year, uses a combination of heated tallow, the fatty tissue of animals, and hydrogen to produce renewable diesel fuel. BP’s Bulwer Island refinery in Queensland will produce 110 million liters of the biodiesel annually. BP says it will comprise 5%t of the refinery’s diesel fuel supply of about 2.2 billion liters per annum. BP Spokesman Chandran Vigneswaran said the product is different from biofuels because it has the same chemical components as regular diesel fuel. The refinery will be modified slightly to produce this product, but BP says implementation of the new technology will require little capital investment. (April 16, 2007)