Marathon Petroleum trucks, trains transition to renewable diesel in Los Angeles Basin
Marathon Petroleum Corp. announced Feb. 28 that its Vinvale and East Hynes fleets in California’s Los Angeles Basin have made a significant step toward reducing their carbon footprint and contributing to a cleaner future by transitioning entirely to renewable diesel.
In 2023, two Marathon Petroleum Transport and Rail (T&R) fleets and two locomotives at the Marathon Petroleum Los Angeles refinery, which are supported by T&R, switched from using traditional diesel fuel to renewable diesel.
In 2021, Marathon Petroleum began transitioning its ARCO retail sites to renewable diesel.
The terminals started replacing CARB diesel—a specific grade of diesel fuel required by the California Air Resources Board—with renewable diesel.
The Marathon Petroleum fleets refuel their trucks at Marathon’s load racks and have access to renewable diesel because the company is supplying it to its customers.
Now, 35 Marathon Petroleum trucks are operating on renewable diesel in the Los Angeles area.
In 2023, the rail team began fueling the locomotives at a 50/50 mixture with regular diesel and renewable diesel before completely transitioning to 100 percent renewable diesel.
“At first, drivers asked lots of questions about renewable diesel,” said Timothy Sweeney, the supervisor for transport maintenance supervisor.
“Since we have switched, the drivers haven’t seen any decrease in power, performance or operations,” Sweeney said.
Renewable diesel is an alternative to traditional diesel fuel and is made from a variety of renewable feedstocks such as vegetable oil, animal fats and waste cooking oils.
It is processed to be chemically the same as traditional diesel and can be used to operate any diesel engine without modifications.
