New $6.1 million biodiesel hub will green up NW farm tractors, trucks and trains
A new $6.1 million high-tech fueling station in Pasco will expand access to the next generation biofuels when it opens for business this week.
Tidewater Terminal Co. celebrated the new addition to its Snake River facilities with a ribbon cutting event.
The project established a new biodiesel hub in Pasco by upgrading tanks and adding a fourth fueling bay at Tidewater’s tank and grain facilities, near the spot where the Snake drains into the Columbia River.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture supported the project with a $3.1 million grant through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program, which pays up to 75% of the cost of projects that increase the availability of fuels made from ethanol and biodiesel derived from U.S.-grown agricultural products.
The new Tidewater hub allows operators to precisely blend biodiesel and ethanol to customer specifications. It will supply fuel distributors serving Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Northern Idaho.
Pasco is one of five Tidewater marine terminals on the Columbia Snake system, along with Vancouver, Boardman and Umatilla, Ore, and the Port of Wilma, Wash., near the Idaho border.
Customers include farmers who use biodiesel in tractors and gas stations that sell to freight trucks and construction equipment.
BNSF Railway, which has a goal of reducing emissions by 30%, is also expected to be a customer..
The new hub can blend up to 2 million gallons of fuel each month and promises to reduce its users’ carbon footprint by nearly 80% compared to traditional petroleum products.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, along with U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray urged the USDA to fund the project as part of Tidewater’s clean energy transition project.
“Farmers are going to benefit tremendously from what we see here today,” Newhouse said at the event.
Cantwell released a statement that the biodiesel served up in Pasco will help farmers meet fuel standard requirements when a five-year agricultural exemption from the state’s Climate Commitment Act expires.
The expansion will help Tidewater increase sales at its Pasco terminal to more than 12 million gallons of biodiesel each year, said Helen Price Johnson, Washington director for the USDA ‘s Rural Development office.
Biodiesel can be made from soybean oil, animal fats and used cooking oil.
It ships by railcar and is stored in two 400,000-gallon tanks before being blended and offloaded into the tanker trucks that ferry it to customers.
This story was originally published October 14, 2024 at 11:23 AM with the headline "New $6.1 million biodiesel hub will green up NW farm tractors, trucks and trains."