What does a renewable diesel consultant do? Let’s start at the beginning. Renewable diesel is a premium-quality diesel produced from renewable and sustainable feedstocks such as waste animal fats, waste vegetable oils, and greases. It allows a significant reduction in the carbon footprint compared to petroleum diesel without sacrificing diesel engine performance. It has the same chemical composition as petroleum diesel making it easier to blend and use as a drop-in fuel for diesel-powered vehicles without any infrastructure modifications. Refiners can produce renewable diesel using standalone or coprocessing options to generate LCFS credits. Implementation of renewable diesel will require expertise in hydrotreating, life cycle, and bio feedstock availability and analysis.
Biodiesel is another type of renewable fuel produced from fats, oils, and greases (FOGs) for use in diesel vehicles. While the feedstocks of renewable diesel and biodiesel are the same, the manufacturing process, chemical composition, and engine performance are different. Biodiesel production requires a reaction of fatty acids derived from the FOGs with alcohols such as methanol to make methyl esters. And there are limits to the amount of biodiesel that can be blended into conventional diesel. Renewable diesel uses hydrogen for hydrotreating to remove oxygen and double bonds to make saturated hydrocarbons indistinguishable from those in petroleum diesel. Petroleum companies are more interested in renewable diesel due to its ability to blend with (or replace) traditional diesel. Renewable diesel provides many advantages over biodiesel, such as higher cetane number, no odor, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, renewable diesel contains no impurities, enabling vehicles to adapt better to cold weather and run cleaner at higher efficiency and lower maintenance costs.
Large renewable energy and biochemical consulting firms like Lee Enterprises Consulting normally offer a wide range of services in biofuels (including renewable diesel), biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, feedstocks, and hemp/cannabis. These companies should have business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans, and bio market research. The company also offers technical and engineering-related services like techno-economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis, and expert witness engagements. They might also have strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement.
The renewable diesel consultant may assist investors in selecting the right technology and in preparing due diligence/feasibility studies and loan/grant applications. They follow the renewable diesel market and have experience with the current state of supply, demand, and pricing. They know many of the key players in the industry. During design, the renewable diesel expert may perform a peer review of the design, prepare cost opinions and assist with permit applications. During construction, the renewable diesel expert can assist with construction oversight of the renewable diesel facility and provide commissioning reports. They may also provide operator training, start-up assistance, and recipe management to assist renewable diesel plant owners in making the plant run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. They are familiar with the specifications and requirements to sell the fuel. In matters involving renewable diesel litigation, the consultant may serve an expert witness and assist the attorneys with understanding the processes and related technical issues and may testify in court about aspects of renewable diesel technology and related matters.
With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has experts in many specific clean and renewable areas, including anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid-state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag-biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen. This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one-stop-shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.
Look at our experts and the services we provide. Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters. For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full-service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact. See a video about LEC here. Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.
