Monday, March 18, 2013

Colonial Pipeline to ship biodiesel on Georgia line by end-March

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/6267714

San Antonio (Platts)--18Mar2013/315 pm EDT/1915 GMT


Colonial Pipeline will begin shipping biodiesel blends on its pipeline to central and southern Georgia by the end of the month, the company said Monday, calling it a first for the nation's largest volume pipeline shipper of refined products.

The introduction of biodiesel into Colonial's system will occur near Griffin, Georgia, resulting in a blend of no more than 5% biodiesel suitable for trucking, farming and other diesel uses. The biodiesel will be stored in tankage owned by TransMontaigne Partners and injected into diesel as it flows through Colonial's pipeline.

Colonial officials said they have worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency for years on the project. Gwen Keyes Fleming, EPA regional administrator, commended Colonial for advancing biofuel growth along the busy I-75 corridor.

"It took longer than expected, but we're making it happen," Colonial CEO Tim Felt said at a news conference in San Antonio.

Colonial has a 1.272 million b/d gasoline Line 1 and 1.16 million b/d distillates Line 2 from Pasadena, Texas, to Greensboro, North Carolina, where they link up with a 945,000 b/d line into Linden, New Jersey.

The main distillates line allows renewable diesel, which is biodiesel that has been hydrotreated to kill any live agents in the fuel. But biodiesel had not been allowed due to the possibility it will trail back into the jet fuel stream, causing problems with airplane performance.

The 150,000 b/d Line 17, stub line off the main lines from Atlanta to Bainbridge, Georgia, does not carry jet fuel past Griffin, which is near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest airport.

Felt said the company will learn from the project and may look at biodiesel injection into several other so-called stub lines in the future.

--Matthew Kohlman, matthew_kohlman@platts.com
--Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.com 

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