What’s next is NEXT: NEXT Renewable Fuels acquires old Red Rock Biofuels assets for Oregon RNG project

The state of Oregon is bigger than most people realize, the road from Clatskanie along the Columbia River to Lake County in the south-central valley that adjoins the Fremont National Forest is a 590 mile journey through an America that is worth seeing, though not many have time to make the effort. I suspect that the NEXT Renewables team, usually huddled up in the heart of the Oregon rain belt along the pathway of Lewis & Clark, will be making the journey down Highway 26 and on into Lakeview, in a vision quest for feedstock.

For you see, it is a pleasure to relate the news has arrived from the Beaver State that Lakeview RNG, a subsidiary of NEXT Renewable Fuels, has acquired assets associated with the old Red Rock Biofuels development in Lake County.

The Resource Wars over Central Oregon

Down in the southwest, home to Lake County, is a strange words of volcanic maars, tuff rings and soda lakes, all evidence of a violent pyroclastic past of which some of the remains are Mt. Lassen, Death Valley, the Walker Lane and Goose Lake, which as much sodium carbonate as a moderately flat Coca-Cola — it’s beautiful country, the Oregon high desert. And it might interest fans of infrastructure to know that this was the very land that James J. Hill, and E.H. Harriman fought the last of the Great Railroad Wars over, to control the shipping of the very products coming out of Central Oregon high desert that Lakeview RNG will access. 

Hill was financier of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Harriman tycoon of the Illinois Central had bought control of the Union Pacific in 1897, and the Southern Pacific in 1901. In 1906,  The Oregon Trunk Line’s group included then Seattle mayor R.A. Ballinger, serving as vice-president, and Seattle investors enriched by the Yukon gold strikes, and the line was operated by James J. Hill’s companies. The Deschutes Railroad was controlled by Harriman, and was on the opposite side of the River. Abandonedrailroads.org reported:

The friction between the Oregon Trunk and the Deschutes Railroad quickly became an all-out railroad war. Competing construction crews would often blow up the other people’s supplies and ignite the black powder stores, dump boulders on the camps and even get into gun battles! In several cases, local Sheriffs had to get involved and make several arrests when enforcing court orders.

Ballinger, as you may recall, tried to open up federal forestland for more intensive projects, including hydroelectric dams — a move that would prove costly to Republican fortunes in the 1910 mid-terms — and out West, the forces of conservation and commerce have been arguing about forest lands ever since, a battle royal that spilled over eventually into the Energy Independence and Security Act, which prohibited the issue of RINs for renewable fuels made using US national forest land. 

And we thought the story of Red Rock Biofuels had some unfortunate and heated twists and turns. Sheesh.

The new sheriff in town is makin’ RNG, pard’ner

Lakeview RNG is commencing a redevelopment plan focused on completing construction of certain aspects of the site while replacing or enhancing others. When complete, the Lakeview RNG facility is expected to be capable of converting forest waste into renewable natural gas and clean hydrogen.

The feedstock

Lakeview RNG will use wood waste, or “slash,” as the feedstock. Wood waste can come from activities like forest thinning, logging, and wildfire management activities on private and state lands. Today, that waste is largely burned in open slash piles, and the subsequent black carbon lands in rivers, on snowpack, and in the community’s lungs. Instead, Lakeview RNG will process that wood waste and turn it into a low-carbon gaseous fuel, benefitting environmental and community health in southern Oregon and beyond.

We don’t have word from the newly-formed Lakeview on technology, but we’ll suggest that the obvious candidate is syngas methanation. Over a catalyst, which can be a Nickel/biomass combination (see here), the syngas goes through a CO + 3H2 → CH4 + H2O, CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O conversion, and we’ll speculate that from there, the water is spilt to make hydrogen. Just speculation on our part — but not entirely a guess, as Red Rock Biofuels was a thermochemical conversion play and gasification plays a role, so syngas was always in the equation there.

The feedstock supply

Lakeview RNG has evaluated the potential feedstock supply in Oregon and determined that all of its wood waste needs could come from within 150 miles of the facility. Wood waste used at the facility will be certified and compliant with applicable regulations for RNG production. Converting forest waste to renewable fuel products helps reduce forest fire fuel loads and provide an additional revenue source to timber communities. The local distribution network in Lake County is anchored by the Ruby pipeline and can deliver renewable fuels to transportation markets in Oregon and along the west coast.

The purchase price of the facility has not been disclosed.

Reaction from the stakeholders

“Acquiring the Lake County clean fuels infrastructure is another advancement in our mission to decarbonize the transportation industry and produce low carbon fuels at scale,” said Christopher Efird, CEO and Chairperson of NEXT. “This acquisition represents a major step toward our clean fuel production capabilities and pathways to meet growing demand for clean fuels along the west coast of the United States while helping to address the critical concern of forest health.”

“Lakeview RNG acquiring Lake County’s clean fuels facility is fantastic news for our region,” said State Senator Lynn Findley. “Lakeview RNG will bring the promised jobs and tax revenue to the county while finding a clean fuel benefit to our state’s wildfire mitigation efforts.”

“We have been anxiously awaiting this day and are very happy that the facility will be put into operation rather than sold for parts,” said Michele Parry, Lakeview City Manager. “Lakeview’s location is strategically important because of our proximity to regenerative feedstock sources and to the pipeline distribution system that can get the clean fuels to market.”