Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
This field, north of the refinery, will soon host a renewable diesel facility and a canola crush plant, if current plans go ahead. FCL/Twitter
REGINA – On Nov. 7, Federated Co-op and AGT Foods held an open house regarding two upcoming major projects – a hydrogenated renewable diesel (HRD) refinery and a canola crush facility, both of which will be built adjacent to the Co-op Refinery Complex on the north end of Regina.
While the HRD refinery will be wholly a FCL project, the canola crush facility will be a joint venture parthernship, a 51- 49 per cent split, with FCL owning the majority stake.
Pipeline Online spoke to Patrick Bergerman, associate vice president of the energy roadmap for Federated Co-op by phone on Nov. 8.
Pipeline Online
What are you showcasing in Regina these open houses, with the proposed hydrogenated renewable diesel refinery and canola crush plant?
Patrick Bergermann
Yesterday, we had the opportunity to host the public in Regina for consultation process, and it really important for us to have a chance to do that as part of any project, and to make sure we have a chance for the local community to engage in the projects that could understand what we’re up to. So, you’re right, you called out the renewable diesel complex, that was part of the conversation, as well as the canola crush facility. So those are both two key components for what we call the Integrated Agriculture Complex. And yesterday was just all about getting feedback from the community on what we have planned and, and answer some of their questions around where they see the opportunities.
Pipeline Online
Can you give me a thumbnail sketch of each of those projects?
Patrick Bergermann
So the Co-op Renewable Diesel Complex is a 15,000 barrel per day facility, produces pure hydrotreated renewable diesel fuel, and so that would be used as a lower carbon intensity product, compared to standard petroleum diesel fuel. And the canola crush facility as a million metric tonne joint venture partnership with AGT foods. So that is intended to be essentially a feedstock source for the renewable diesel plant, but it also is an important innovation jump off for AGT. So they are looking to take the meal out of that crushed facility and upscale it to pursue new market opportunities for canola proteins. So, it’s a partnership between two companies who are already in the agricultural sector, but this would be in sort of a new area for us within agriculture, and a great partnership between two Saskatchewan based organizations.
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Pipeline Online
Will the HRD refinery will only draw from that one crush plant or will you bring in product from other crush plants?
Patrick Bergermann
That’s an excellent follow up question. So, the 1.1 million metric tonne capacity of our joint venture facility is enough to serve us about half of our feedstock needs when we’re doing 15,000 barrels per day of HRD. So we wouldn’t be looking to pull feedstock in from other crush plants or from animal tallow providers or used cooking oil providers. So, we intend to have that facility flexible to use multiple feedstock sources, but we would certainly be looking to purchase some of that feedstock from other parties as well.
Pipeline Online
The reason I ask is that my mother is quite literally the closest neighbor to both crush plants in Yorkton.
Patrick Bergermann
Oh, nice! We certainly see some opportunities to source canola and other feedstocks from other markets within Saskatchewan or, or elsewhere in the prairies.
Pipeline Online
So what are your timelines?
Patrick Bergermann
The exact timelines will become clearer as we get through FEED phase. So, we’re in the final stages right now of front end engineering and design or FEED phase on those projects.
Right now we’re looking to have the canola crash plans come online in 2027, really just to be timed to be prepared for their harvest of 2027, to receive product. Then the renewable diesel facility is expected to be operational in 2028. But again, we’ll review those dates and how things look as we make our way through our stage-gated process.
Pipeline Online
Does any of this tie into the CO2 hub gathering plans?
Patrick Bergermann
Certainly, we’ve got carbon capture utilization and storage plans with some of our existing facilities. And then also, as you allude to the new facility that we have planned for renewable diesel.
So right now we have carbon capture that is being installed at the ethanol plant at Belle Plaine. So that’s our first to come online. We are also going to be moving forward with carbon capture on our hydrogen production units at the refinery in Regina. So, the Coop Refinery complex has two hydrogen plants and we’ll be looking to add to both those plants. Then we also have plans to add carbon capture to the renewable diesel facility. So all together between those three different initiatives we have about 1.3 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions that we’d be looking to sequester.
Pipeline Online
You realize that that’s more than Boundary Dam Unit 3 captures?
Patrick Bergermann
A significant amount of carbon, you bet. That’s a big part of our pathway to get to 40 per cent emissions reduction as an organization by 2030.
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Pipeline Online
The wave of canola crush plants being built across Saskatchewan aren’t because everyone decided they suddenly want to eat more Becel margarine or I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. It’s the federal Clean Fuel Standard that is driving this development. How much of this business case for both projects is tied to the Clean Fuel Standard?
Patrick Bergermann
Obviously, regulation is a key driver for this market. The economics of renewable fuels and biofuels are very dependent upon the regulatory environments in which they’re being produced. We see a tremendous opportunity here for the province of Saskatchewan, whether it’s our own initiatives around renewable diesel, or our joint venture with ATT on the canola crush side. We just see some great opportunities to continue to add value and security for western Canadian farmers as we’re no longer so reliant upon international markets. So the economic to return of any of those investments, we have to review at each stage-gate throughout the process to make sure that they still make the business sense within the regulatory environment that we’re operating in. And that becomes part of our assessment along the way.
Pipeline Online
So, what happens if we get a change in federal government, and they decide to throw out both the carbon tax and the Clean Fuel Standard? Will these projects still fly?
Patrick Bergermann
Good questions, I think that we obviously would need to continue to assess what does it get replaced with?
So you know, we don’t control the federal election process, or any other election process, but it is our responsibility to make sure that we can adjust and adapt based on the regulations that are in front of us.
I think that the transition for the world and is very obvious that there’s a strong desire to get into lower emissions fuels. You see that in Europe, you see that in the US. You see it right here in Canada. And we look for some of the opportunities that are going to come through the low carbon economy transition.
So there may be some changes in the regulatory framework as we go through that process. If we see a change in government, the outlook may look different. It’s really important and key that we’ve got some of those review points as we work through each of our gates on the stage-gated process. And we are coming, over the next couple of months, to the tail end of front end engineering and design. So it does give us that opportunity to pause and reflect.
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Pipeline Online
We touched on this a little bit before. What is happening with the carbon hub project? You mentioned some construction already happening. Can you elaborate?
Patrick Bergermann
A lot of stakeholders that we’re in conversations with right now, so not a lot of additional information I can provide.
They are important projects for our path forward for emissions reduction, and so we definitely want to make sure that we have the right partnerships in place. When we speak to various parties that are that are interested in the carbon sequestration space, the incentives are different for those who are not part of the Clean Fuel Standard. So if their key driver is just the carbon tax itself, the economics of their decisions are a little different than for those who are operating under the Clean Fuel Standard. And so, you know, that’s part of the conversation. That’s part of the calculus. But a lot of stakeholders that we that we are still in conversations with to determine exactly what that looks like.
Pipeline Online
Has anyone dropped out or do you still have the same six?
Patrick Bergermann
The conversation is ongoing with all parties that we’ve been engaged with.
Every industrial player that you know is looking for their own path to decarbonization sees the potential of carbon capture as one of those possible solutions.
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Pipeline Online
What are the timelines for this? And I guess a lot of this has to do with are you going to start opening up ditch for a pipeline and then there’s an election the next week and the carbon tax gets thrown out.
Patrick Bergermann
So the current operations as I was mentioning earlier, the first step in the process is the ethanol complex at Belle Plaine. So we’ll be in position to be ready with those assets in 2025. The refinery, itself, we with the most carbon capture assets ready come 2027. And then the renewable diesel facility, as I mentioned previously, is set to come online in 2028.
Pipeline Online
Does that mean you have to have that pipe in the ground in 2025? Or are you going to truck the that part until you get the pipe in the ground?
Patrick Bergermann
We have to continue to assess the different options in front of us.
Pipeline Online
But if the carbon tax is abolished by changing government, will you proceed with these projects?
Patrick Bergermann
It becomes an important part of the discussions internally. It’s just navigating the various project risks, the regulatory framework being one of those things. Yesterday was also an important milestone, just to get input from the public. And as we continue to progress through our various stage-gates will continue to keep the public abreast of what we’re up to.
Pipeline Online
What was the response from the public at your open house?
Patrick Bergermann
Really positive. I was really pleased with (it). We had some folks here that were very open about concerns of the different impacts that could happen on residential areas and we felt well-equipped to answer a lot of those questions. And we were really pleased with the openness of the conversations with folks. We also had farmers there that were really excited about the canola crush opportunities and the impacts to them. We had various contractors that were certainly looking to understand the opportunities that are going to come with 4,500 jobs being created with the projects coming on line. So that was a tremendous day. And we were really, really thankful for the people that came out on a really snowy data to come and talk to us and learn more.
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Pipeline Online
What was the number of jobs?
Patrick Bergermann
4,500 jobs during construction phase for the integrated ag complex.
Pipeline Online
Wow, that’s more than when you did Section V of the refinery.
Patrick Bergermann
It is significant, you bet.
Pipeline Online
And how many for operations?
Patrick Bergermann
We expect the integrated ag complex, as constituted, to have around 200 operational jobs once live
Pipeline Online
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Patrick Bergermann
Just a real appreciation for the folks who came out yesterday. We had a lot of tremendous conversations with people and really pleased with the attendance. We had up around 150 people came out yesterday and again, it wasn’t the most beautiful day yesterday. Mother Nature threw a lot at us, and people came out anyway. And that was really high-energy day and a lot of good conversations. So just a big thanks to those who came.
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