Neste: How an Oil Company Became the Largest Producer of Renewable Diesel Fuels in the World

Source: David Dodge & Kay Rollans | GREEN ENERGY FUTURES

Green Energy Futures is a multi-media storytelling project that is documenting the clean energy revolution that’s already underway. It tells the stories of green energy pioneers who are moving forward in their homes, businesses and communities.

Episode 253. Neste: How an oil company became the largest producer of renewable diesel fuels in the world

What energy transition looks like

Neste, the Finnish company formerly known as Neste Oil, started developing renewable diesel fuels in the 1990s. At the time, few in the oil industry thought this was a good idea. Even fewer recognized it as the visionary move it has turned out to be.

Even the current president of Neste U.S., Jeremy Baines, a dyed-in-the-wool oil guy, was at first “quite skeptical about renewable fuels at the time. It was costly and it was maybe unrealistic,” says Baines.

But now, Neste’s early investment in renewable diesel seems to be paying off. The company started by building pilot plants in Finland. These were followed by major plants in Singapore and Rotterdam.

At 3.4 trillion liters per year, Neste is now the largest producer of renewable diesel in the world.

Early to the renewable fuel party

Jeremy Baines is an economist who studied in London. “I’m in the U.S. to help build out Neste’s presence, looking at market opportunities and really promoting renewable fuels and circular solutions for the U.S. market.”

Twenty years ago, this sort of thinking was, in Baines words, “early” for oil companies.

“I often like to say Neste has been too early. We were too early with low sulfur diesel. We were too early with unleaded gasoline. We were too early with low sulphur bunker fuels [and] arguably too early with renewable diesel.”

Baines says this chronic earliness made Neste’s first years of renewable diesel “very tough.” The market wasn’t there yet and legislation on alternative fuels wasn’t clear.

Then there were the myths about biodiesel to counter. Baines heard it all: “It’s snake oil, it doesn’t exist. You can’t get it because it only exists in test tubes. It’ll kill your engine. … There were so many myths about it.”

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