JUNCTION CITY – Shell Oil Products US, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, has successfully achieved startup and production of renewable natural gas (RNG) at its first US biomethane facility, Shell New Energies Junction City in Oregon. The facility utilizes locally sourced cow manure and excess agricultural residues to produce an expected 736,000 MMBtu a year of RNG. This milestone is part of a growing portfolio of developing RNG production and distribution assets supporting low-carbon intensity renewable compressed natural gas (R-CNG) as fuel for heavy-duty, on-road transport.
“Biomethane has a significant role to play in the energy transition, and this achievement advances our strategy as we work to reduce emissions from the fuels and other energy products we sell,” said Carlos Maurer, Executive Vice President Sectors and Decarbonization at Shell. “We are excited to offer renewable compressed natural gas as a low-carbon fuel choice for our customers.”
Shell is developing additional RNG production facilities to be located directly within operating dairies. Shell Downstream Galloway at the High Plains Ponderosa Dairy in Plains, Kansas and Shell Downstream Bovarius at the Bettencourt Dairies in Wendell, Idaho are part of this expanding biofuels portfolio utilizing cow manure as feedstock. Together, these two dairy RNG facilities can produce approximately 900,000 MMBtu a year of negative carbon intensity RNG.
Production from Shell New Energies Junction City, Shell Downstream Galloway and Shell Downstream Bovarius is expected to help supply Shell R-CNG fueling sites planned at the company’s product distribution complexes in Carson, Van Nuys, Signal Hill, and San Jose, California, and at a terminal in Portland, Oregon, owned by Shell Midstream Partners L.P. R-CNG offers an attractive alternative for fleets to lower their carbon footprint compared to conventional diesel fuel. Providing 100 percent R-CNG for customers would allow these fueling sites to substantially decarbonize product movements out of the terminals.
Notes to editors
- Shell’s Powering Progress sets out our strategy to accelerate the transition of our business to net-zero emissions. Becoming a net-zero emissions energy business means that we are reducing emissions from our operations and from the fuels and other energy products we sell, including biofuels and RNG.
- We will continue to drive innovation to provide the cleaner energy that our customers need.
- Working with our partners and suppliers and developing new collaborations are key to delivering Powering Progress. One such new collaboration is the development of US RNG production facilities within operating dairies, utilizing cow manure as feedstock.
- We are partnering with customers, businesses and others to address emissions in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as road freight.
- About Shell Downstream: Shell’s Downstream organization serves more than 30 million customers at about 46,000 retail service stations every day. It manages different Chemicals and Products activities as part of an integrated value chain that trades and refines crude oil and other feedstocks into a range of products, which are moved and marketed around the world for domestic, industrial and transport use. The products we offer customers include conventional fuels for road, aviation and shipping, and low-carbon fuels such as biofuels, RNG, hydrogen and electric-vehicle charging. We also produce and sell lubricants, bitumen, sulphur and petrochemicals worldwide.
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