Diamond Green Diesel Initiates Engineering Review for Proposed Expansion to 550 Million Gallons Annually

IRVING, Texas, Nov. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE: DAR) and Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) ("Valero") announced today that in anticipation of growing demand for renewable diesel due to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and global low carbon markets, they will initiate an engineering and construction cost review to analyze an additional project growing annual production capacity to 550 million gallons at the Diamond Green Diesel (DGD) facility in Norco, LA. 

The DGD facility is currently undergoing an expansion project that will grow annual production capacity from 160 million gallons of renewable diesel to 275 million gallons. This project is targeted for completion in second quarter 2018.

"Diamond Green Diesel has proven to be a tremendous success and we acknowledge Valero's engineering excellence as the key," said Randall C. Stuewe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Darling Ingredients Inc. "Our partnership through DGD has created a sustainable and efficient process of converting Darling's feedstocks into high quality biofuels to meet the needs of our customers around the world."

A final decision on the incremental 275 million gallons of annual production capacity is expected in 2018 and will be dependent on further engineering and cost estimates, as well as the status of government regulations. The proposed expansion would utilize existing DGD infrastructure and be built on property owned by Valero. If a decision is made to proceed with the proposed expansion, the new capacity would be available in the first half of 2021. Current DGD operations are not expected to be impacted if the proposed expansion is built. 

About Darling

Darling Ingredients Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded developer and producer of sustainable natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients, creating a wide range of ingredients and specialty products for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, technical, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries.  With operations on five continents, the Company collects and transforms all aspects of animal by-product streams into broadly used and specialty ingredients, such as gelatin, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstocks, green energy, natural casings and hides.  The Company also recovers and converts used cooking oil and commercial bakery residuals into valuable feed and fuel ingredients.  In addition, the Company provides grease trap services to food service establishments, environmental services to food processors and sells restaurant cooking oil delivery and collection equipment. For additional information, visit the Company's website at http://www.darlingii.com.