three companies, one circular economy for biodiesel

Chevron Renewable Energy Group, Sheetz and Restaurant Technologies created a circular economy for processing used cooking oil.

Could your next order of french fries help fuel diesel engines in your area? For more and more people, the answer is yes.

Making biodiesel from used cooking oil (UCO) isn’t a new idea. But Chevron is working to find new ways to collect and refine UCO.

“We wanted to find a way to create a circular economy for UCO,” said Jason Lawrence, senior business development team lead for Chevron Renewable Energy Group (REG). “We met with our UCO transportation partner, Restaurant Technologies, and Sheetz convenience stores to see if we could close the loop in a big way.”

Sheetz is a family-owned chain of convenience stores with locations across the northeast United States. They’re known for jalapeño poppers and french fries, and they generate a lot of UCO. Lawrence was working with the team at Sheetz because buying biodiesel from Chevron REG aligned with Sheetz’s lower carbon emissions goals. They realized they could create a circular economy.

When materials are reused—kept out of a landfill and turned into a new product—that loop is called a circular economy. How would it work here? Restaurant Technologies would pick up the UCO from Sheetz each time they delivered fresh cooking oil. Chevron REG would receive that UCO from Restaurant Technologies, then create biodiesel and then sell it back to Sheetz.

“There has been a tipping point over the past year where more locations are having their UCO collected. We recycle 100% of the UCO we collect from customers like Sheetz,” said Diana Geseking, general counsel and ESG chair for Restaurant Technologies.

Restaurant Technologies collects UCO from more than 37,000 commercial kitchens nationwide. And Chevron biodiesel powers their trucks.

The Sheetz-Restaurant Technologies-Chevron partnership is an example of a circular economy—a repeatable sequence that minimizes waste and can contribute to lower life cycle carbon emissions.

Sheetz began selling biodiesel in Pennsylvania in 2010. Diesel fuel sold in that state is required to contain at least 2% biodiesel. Some of the benefits of this UCO collaboration include:

• UCO can be used to produce lower carbon intensity fuels, including biodiesel, renewable diesel and a blend of the two called UltraClean BlenD™.
• These lower carbon intensity fuels can be used in diesel engines that are on the road today—usually without modifying the engine.
• The infrastructure used to deliver traditional diesel can also be used to deliver biodiesel, renewable diesel and diesel blends. (In winter, biodiesel may require heated tanks in some climates.)

Biodiesel made from UCO is easy to deliver and use, and it can help reduce life cycle carbon emissions today.