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CountryMark expects to co-process renewable diesel by 2025

The head of CountryMark says its co-processing project will benefit farmers as the refinery integrates more sustainable fuel into its production.

Matt Smorch tells Brownfield the liquid fuels industry needs to adapt to demands to decarbonize.

“There’s going to be a tremendous growth for any type of vegetable oil, whether it’s corn oil or soybean oil or even used cooking oil,” he shares.  “I think that demand is going to continue to increase because it’s going to be a key part of decarbonization from a diesel fuel perspective.”

CountryMark has committed a quarter of the capital needed to co-process fuel in Indiana which Smorch says should use up to 1,500 barrels per day of refined soybean oil.

“We can go and take soybean oil and run it into our refinery with petroleum diesel fuel, and make renewable diesel,” he explains.

The project is expected to be complete in 2025 and could produce about 22 million gallons of renewable diesel fuel annually.

CountryMark has been a farmer-owned cooperative since 1919. Its products are sold in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Brownfield interviewed Smorch during the recent Indiana Farm Bureau Convention.