New Leaf Biofuel, MHX break ground on renewable fuel terminal in Fontana, California

New Leaf Biofuel, a leading provider of low-carbon biodiesel to the California market, and MHX, an integrated transload and transportation company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, broke ground in late March on its 100 percent renewable fuel terminal in Fontana, California.

Once complete, the facility will be able to throughput more than 100 million gallons per year of biodiesel, renewable diesel and E85 ethanol.

New Leaf has been transloading renewable fuels at the MHX facility for more than seven years.

The growing demand for low-carbon fuels in recent years led to building out the facility’s infrastructure to increase the region’s volume and improve efficiencies.

Funding for the facility was provided, in part, by grants from the California Energy Commission and the USDA’s Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program.

As one of the largest consumers of fuels in the United States, California has become a leader in climate policy, aiming to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in the next decade.

“New Leaf is excited to build much-needed infrastructure to deliver the renewable fuels necessary to achieve that goal,” said Jennifer Case, president and founder of New Leaf Biofuel.

The project, which boasts more than 55,000 barrels (2.31 million gallons) of storage for biobased diesel fuel, is estimated to be completed by the end of 2023.

“We believe the additional infrastructure will allow MHX to move significant volume of renewable diesel and biodiesel from rail to truck, providing additional renewable sources to California and optimizing rail to transload opportunities,” said Brooke Smith, president of MHX.

New Leaf Biofuel, established in 2006, collects used cooking oil and cleans grease traps for Southern California restaurants, and converts the cooking oil to ultra-low carbon biodiesel.

MHX was established in 2017 and operates multiple direct rail transload facilities in California.

MHX is a fully integrated logistics and supply-chain management company providing rail transload, critical first- and last-mile solutions, and heavy-weight container transload and transportation.