Inside the Port of Seattle’s renewable diesel transition strategy

Our approach

Earth Finance partnered with the Port of Seattle to conduct a comprehensive market assessment of the renewable diesel landscape in the Puget Sound region. The goal was to move beyond assumptions and build a strategy grounded in the perspectives of every stakeholder along the fuel value chain. Here’s a closer look at our process:

1) Landscape assessment of the existing fuel ecosystem. We began with a full landscape assessment to understand the infrastructure, refinery capacity, policy environment, and supply chain dynamics shaping the renewable diesel market in Washington state.

This included in-depth conversations with 25 stakeholders spanning every link in the fuel value chain: fishing fleet operators, tugboat and tow companies, fuel distributors, refineries, bunkering entities, ports in California that had already transitioned harbor craft fuels under state mandates, the Washington Department of Ecology, and non-profit organizations involved in clean fuel advocacy.

2) Identification of common pain points across stakeholder categories. We then synthesized the results of these conversations and identified friction points specific to each constituency to determine what barriers needed to be addressed to scale renewable diesel adoption.

One learning that surfaced through our conversations was that misconceptions around renewable diesel were prevalent across the entire value chain. For instance, many fuel producers and distributors weren’t familiar with the fuel's benefits or how state-wide Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) policies could offset its cost, while end users feared that switching to renewable diesel would void their engine warranties.

Another learning was that a one-size-fits-all approach for fuel policy in ports likely won't work because harbor vessels have vastly different operational profiles. Alaska-bound fishing boats, for example, are far more concerned about fuel gelling in cold weather than tugboats moving tankers around a temperate harbor.