Construction begins on Nebraska plant to pretreat animal fats for renewable diesel

JST Global LLC, a joint venture between Tyson Foods and Jacob Stern & Sons, began construction on a facility in mid-September that will pretreat animal fats for the growing renewable diesel industry.

The 6.5-acre project site is adjacent to Tyson Foods’ largest beef operation, located in Dakota City, Nebraska. The new pretreatment plant is expected to be running by the end of 2022.

According to JST Global, this development is “the first step to convert animal fat byproduct from many of Tyson’s Midwestern beef and pork processing facilities into renewable energy … The facility will be capable of meeting the stringent specifications that renewable diesel producers require.”

The company stated that the new facility will complement JST Global’s existing plant in Houston, Texas.

“JST Global’s Houston facility has pretreatment capability, and the Dakota City facility will provide additional pretreatment capacity to our portfolio,” Jay Van Valen, CEO of JST Global, told Biobased Diesel Daily.

Tyson and Jacob Stern & Sons first announced the JST Global joint venture in February 2020.

In that 2020 announcement, the two companies advised that the marketing of all animal fats generated by Tyson Fresh Meats would be conducted by JST Global teams in Houston, Texas; Dakota Dunes, South Dakota; and Omaha, Nebraska. In that same press release from February 2020, the companies stated Tyson Fresh Meats operated six beef and six pork plants in the U.S., and that Jacob Stern & Sons is among Tyson’s largest customers for animal byproducts. The release also stated that Jacob Stern & Sons is the largest U.S. processor and marketer of animal fats.