Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s Martinez Renewable Fuels Project in Martinez, California, began its final engineering phase of the project last month, working toward an initial fuel production rate of 260 million gallons per year (17,000 barrels per day) by the second half of 2022 and a full capacity of 730 million gallons per year (47,700 barrels per day) by the end of 2023. The project leadership team is carefully planning the logistics of getting feedstock to the refinery efficiently and safely, moving renewable fuels to where they’re needed most, and finalizing the details for converting the petroleum refinery to a renewable fuels facility.

“No part of the Martinez Renewable Fuels project is simple, and we’re fortunate to have such a talented team working to make this complex conversion a success,” said Program Director John Stefko. “One of the best indicators of our project’s scale is the amount of materials and equipment we will be procuring and the number of people we will be deploying to make this project a reality.”

Just a few of those quantities:

10,000 cubic yards of concrete: This will be used primarily to build foundations for new and relocated equipment inside the facility’s existing operational areas.

2,200 pilings: Pilings are typically pipe, steel, or concrete beams driven into the ground and are used to support equipment. The pilings for the Martinez Renewable Fuels project are primarily in the new feedstock pre-treater and new wastewater treatment areas.

2,700 tons of steel: This steel will be for new structures associated with new and relocated equipment, as well as pipe racks, which are structures that support piping that traverses the facility’s operational areas.

30 miles of pipe: The Martinez Renewable Fuels project is reusing existing equipment, including piping, wherever possible. Piping being installed includes a wide variety of pressure ratings, thicknesses, and metallurgy (65 specifications in all).

4,000 piping tie-ins: All that new piping needs to be connected to existing pipes, or “tied in.” The project’s extensive reuse of existing piping results in the large number of tie-ins.

120 miles of cable and wire: This includes electrical power and process data connections that make it possible to monitor and control all operations from a central control room.

1,400 union workers: At peak construction, Martinez Renewable Fuels is anticipated to employ approximately 1,400 building trades union workers at the site.

4 million hours: The project as a whole is expected to require approximately 4 million construction worker-hours to complete.