Foster Fuels, Compass Datacenters celebrate half a million gallons of renewable diesel delivery

Photo: Foster Fuels

Foster Fuels is celebrating the distribution of half a million gallons of carbon-saving renewable fuel to data centers across North America. The company’s Mission Critical division delivers hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), also known as renewable diesel, to critical facilities for use in their emergency backup-power generators.

“This is just the beginning,” said Scott Worley of Foster Mission Critical during a panel discussion on renewable diesel research at the 7x24 Exchange 2022 Fall Conference in San Antonio, Texas. “We’re inspired, and with our partners at Compass Datacenters, we’re here to share our research while challenging the mission-critical industry to join us in this meaningful and positive step towards decarbonization.”

Compass Datacenters is one of the first companies to partner with Foster on implementing the alternative-fuel breakthrough for mission-critical facilities.

“All existing site generators we’ve filled and tested have seamlessly transitioned to renewable diesel fuel,” said Cheryl Cohen, Compass Datacenter’s head of engineering. “We’re seeing negligible differences during steady state and transient testing in a product that’s 90 percent carbon neutral, sourced from flexible lower carbon-intensity feedstocks and certified not to include palm oil—making it part of a desirable circular economy. If we didn’t know it was HVO being put into the tanks, we wouldn’t know there was a difference.”

According to Cohen, the biggest challenge they are experiencing is repermitting for their generators.

“Because this isn’t standard diesel, we’re in new territory,” she said. “If permitting is the biggest issue we face in our effort to decarbonize Compass’ backup-generator footprint, we’ve scored a huge win.”

Foster’s surge into providing renewable energy has led to the realization of a need for more storage capability in data center localities, which, in time, will result in better economy of scale and further reductions of scope 3 impacts.

“Now that we’ve hit a stride with national delivery, we are working on ways to optimize availability as we see more data centers transition to HVO,” Worley said. “We’re delivering scope 1 emissions reduction to our client, while being cognizant of ways we as a company can reduce the scope 3 impact of delivery.”

Established in 1921, Foster Fuels is a privately held corporation, providing downstream distribution of diesel, renewable HVO diesel, gasoline, Jet A, propane, and emergency water to residential, commercial, and government customers.

Foster Fuels operates an award-winning emergency-fuel division specializing in business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.