Vertex Energy completes its 1st commercial sales of renewable diesel made at Alabama refinery

Vertex Energy Inc. announced June 26 that the company has completed its first series of commercial sales transactions of renewable diesel from its recently completed renewable diesel production facility at its refinery in Mobile, Alabama.

The initial sales totaled approximately 4.62 million gallons of renewable diesel to Idemitsu Apollo Renewable Corp., a wholly owned California-based subsidiary of Idemitsu Kosan, per the previously disclosed product-supply agreement announced in February 2022.

The company also announced expected increases in renewable diesel production volumes remain on schedule as planned, at a current rate of approximately 323,400 gallons per day (gpd).

The company maintains plans to continue increasing renewable diesel production levels towards its previously stated target of approximately 336,000 gpd by the end of June.

“We are pleased to report the initial sales of renewable diesel out of our Mobile refinery,” said James Rhame, chief operations officer at Vertex.

“Our team has demonstrated dedication and excellence in getting us to this point, and this series of transactions is a testament to their ability to execute end-to-end on putting an entirely new low-carbon product stream into the market,” he continued. “Operationally, the renewable diesel plant continues to run well, and our team continues to safely and reliably deliver on incremental production targets as planned. We are proud of our team, and we are honored to have Idemitsu as an offtake partner in this process, as we work together toward a sustainable future.”

Vertex Energy completed construction of its refinery conversion to produce renewable diesel in early April.

At the end of April, the company cut the ribbon on the facility.

Shortly afterwards, the feedstock-pumping system failed, delaying the start of production.

This was repaired and start-up procedures were complete by the end of May.

In mid-June, Vertex Energy announced it had received EPA approval to generate D4 RINs under the Renewable Fuel Standard program.