It’s time to move quickly with what’s available in lower-emission alternatives, rather than waiting on zero-emission technology, because the former can make a short-term difference in cleaning up the environment while the latter technology develops, representatives with Vopak Terminal Los Angeles said on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Those remarks came when the company celebrated plans to transition 22 of its 82 fuel storage tanks at its Los Angeles Terminal in Wilmington to cleaner Sustainable Aviation Fuel and renewable diesel. That transition is already underway.
A long-term agreement with Neste, the world’s leading producer of SAF and renewable diesel, is designed to join the push for California’s energy transition, officials said at a Wednesday news conference.
The tanks are being recoated and prepared for the lower-emission contents in the transition, which is expected to cost about $30 million.
Large and small airports, including Los Angeles International, are among the largest customers that will receive the cleaner fuels via a pipeline from the Vopak terminal on Canal Street, not far from Banning’s Landing and the ongoing work being done on Wilmington’s new waterfront.
The transition, said Vopak U.S. and Canada President Maria Ciliberti, is just a part of the 400-year-old company’s move to provide “first-generation” cleaner fuels under its own initial 2030 deadline, all part of the long-haul strategy underway to clean the environment.
It is a heavy lift, various speakers at Wednesday’s event acknowledged — and one that will need industry’s full engagement.
“It’s really a complete transformation of the supply chain,” Ciliberti said.
“For me,” said Neste Vice President/Renewable Aviation Americas Michael Sargent, “this is personal.”
Climate change, he added, “is with us and the more we can do (now), the merrier.”
While advances will be made in developing more advanced clean energy methods going forward, he said,…
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