NEXT Renewable Fuels is focused on the production of second-generation Advanced Green Diesel and other biofuels. NEXT’s facility is currently in the planning and permitting phase and scheduled to open in 2024.
NEXT’s executives bring decades of entrepreneurial and energy industry experience to this project. To help build NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon, we have assembled a team of accomplished experts. Our technology partner, Honeywell UOP, has developed and deployed its Ecofining™ technology around the globe. NEXT’s project and engineering manager, Fluor, Inc., has successfully managed the construction of hundreds of large-scale energy projects worldwide.
NEXT has agreed to purchase a 25-acre parcel of land at the Port of Columbia County’s Port Westward Industrial Park. The land is zoned industrial and was previously owned by Teevin Bros, a material handling and timber company headquartered in Astoria, Oregon. Additionally, NEXT has secured 90.5 acres of properly zoned land adjacent to the purchased property.
The Port Westward facility will process approximately 45,000 barrels per day of renewable feedstock. Nearly 90% of that will be turned into NEXT’s Advanced Green Diesel. A small percentage will become other residual renewable products, and roughly 9% will be turned into renewable propane that will be recycled back into the refining process. By recycling that renewable propane, we can further reduce greenhouse gas emissions by limiting the need for external inputs such as natural gas.
One hundred percent of NEXT’s Advanced Green Diesel produced in Oregon will be purchased under long-term contracts with established multinational companies and shipped to West Coast markets.
Advanced Green Diesel and biodiesel are different products.
As a second-generation biofuel, Advanced Green Diesel is a true drop-in replacement for traditional petroleum-based diesel fuel. That means that while you can blend Advanced Green Diesel with traditional diesel, you don’t have to. Our advanced biofuel can be used in diesel engines without modification and without negative long-term effects – while burning cleaner than other fuel options.
Globally, carbon dioxide makes up the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, transportation represents the largest producer of greenhouse gases. The problem is clear. Products like NEXT’s Advanced Green Diesel offer part of the solution. The greenhouse gas savings created by NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon will be equivalent to removing more than 1 million automobiles from the road.
The environmental benefits generated by biofuels accrue over the product’s life cycle. Fossil fuels begin with the mining of energy-rich hydrocarbons created by plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. These materials must be extracted, transported, refined and then burned, building emissions each step along the way. Ultimately, they release carbon that had been buried for those millions of years.
Biofuels, on the other hand, release the energy stored in the fats and oils of animal and plant materials that had only recently been removed from the atmosphere and stored as part of their natural life process. That chemical energy includes carbon. When these materials are used to produce fuel, they release the same carbon back into the environment to be recycled – and the process can begin again, with no net carbon emissions from the feedstock used to make the biofuel.
Feedstock will include white and brown grease, several types of animal tallow and a variety of vegetable oils. NEXT will NOT use virgin palm oil. These feedstocks will be sourced from locations around the world and delivered to Port Westward by ship. NEXT has entered into a feedstock supply agreement designed to help keep the feedstock’s life cycle carbon intensity (CI), which includes transport, as low as possible. To the extent that NEXT could periodically source lower-CI feedstock outside of this agreement, NEXT has the right to do so.
No. The facility will not be permitted or equipped to produce or handle crude oil at any volume, nor will it work with any fossil fuels or commodities other than those involving the production of advanced biofuels.
NEXT will need a number of federal, state and local permits and looks forward to demonstrating the project’s ability to meet and exceed Oregon’s strict environmental standards.
Some of the permitting highlights include: the project has been designed to reduce emissions and will fall under a Standard Air Contaminant Discharge Permit. In addition, the project is one of the first new facilities reviewed under the State’s Cleaner Air Oregon Program. US Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon Department of State Lands are overseeing wetland fill and the creation of valuable wetland habitat. Columbia County will oversee various building permits.
NEXT is actively permitting and hopes to be able to begin construction in early 2022.
NEXT will ultimately provide more than 240 local, family-wage jobs, contribute more than $13 million a year in local property taxes, and pay more than $5.5 million in Port fees.
NEXT has signed memorandums of understanding with the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council and the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters for construction of the Port Westward facility
Next projects that the vast majority of both feedstock and finished product will arrive and leave by ship. Manifest rail will be used on a limited basis for feedstock receipts, product shipments, and receipt of supplies and spare parts. NEXT projects no substantial increase in rail traffic in Columbia County, or elsewhere.