Neste and PTL Marine partner to supply renewable diesel to California customers

Image: Neste

The California marine industry is to get easier access to renewable diesel. This has become increasingly important since California’s Commercial Harbor Craft (CHC) regulation, established by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), took effect on January 1, 2023. The regulation requires commercial harbor craft in the state to use renewable diesel (also known locally as R99 or R100) instead of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), to limit emissions such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides for vessels operating in the state’s ports and near the coast. The regulation applies to the use of on-water diesel fuels in California harbors, ports, navigable waterways, marinas and marine navigation districts.

Now Neste is partnering with PTL Marine to provide Neste MY Renewable Diesel to the marine sector across the state. PTL Marine is a division of Pilot Thomas Logistics, a leading provider of maritime fuel and lubricants, supplies and last-mile logistics.

“Our partnership with PTL Marine demonstrates renewable diesel’s wide range of applications in the heavy-duty sectors,” says Carrie Song, vice president, renewable road transportation, Americas at Neste. “We are excited to see California actively encouraging the use of renewable diesel outside of road transportation to reduce emissions, especially from older engines. With strategic partners like PTL Marine, we look forward to helping California’s marine industry have easier access to this more sustainable alternative.”

Song is to speak at Marine Log’s FERRIES 2023 next week, where she will address how Hornblower is already using renewable diesel and finding that it delivers benefits that go beyond regulatory compliance.

As Neste MY Renewable Diesel has a similar chemical composition to fossil diesel, it can be used as a drop-in solution in all diesel-powered vessels without investments into new fleets, modifications to engines or to the fuel distribution infrastructure. It also delivers strong performance and meets all of the CARB requirements, including a flash point of 140ºF or greater.

With long experience in providing fuels and lubricants to marine customers, PTL Marine can deliver Neste MY Renewable Diesel to customers in a timely manner with three modes of delivery – truck to the vessel, dockside services, and barge to the vessel. These various delivery modes enable a range of harbor craft, and other vessels of all sizesm to easily access renewable fuel.

“We are pleased to be working alongside Neste to deliver a high-quality, reliable supply of renewable diesel for our west coast customers,” says Steven Taylor, business development manager at PTL Marine. “Partnering with a company that shares our values and embodies our commitment to innovation makes this an exciting partnership.”

Finnish headquartered Neste has been supplying renewable diesel to California since 2016. Neste now has an annual production capacity of 1.14 billion gallons (3.3 million tons) of renewable products globally. The production capacity will further increase to 1.9 billion gallons (5.5 million tons) in early 2024 thanks to the ramp-up of production at Neste’s expanded refinery in Singapore and its joint operation with Marathon Petroleum in Martinez, Calif.