So you probably think of canola oil as just something you put on the frying pan, but a
lot of it now ends up in diesel tanks.
Canola is by far Canada's most valuable crop, generating 3.7 billion in farm cash receipts
in the first three months of the year, and a growing source of that value is in energy.
The climate policy that started under the Harper government pushed refineries to add
cleaner sources to the mix, and that's where canola comes in.
So how does it work?
First the seeds are crushed, separating the oil from the solid part of the seed, which
is called meal.
After that the oil can go two ways.
It can either become cooking oil, or it can be sent into the fuel system as a raw material
for renewable diesel.
So now we get to the refinery, and the canola oil can't just be mixed into the diesel.
It has to be processed further before it can become fuel.
The simple version?
Well, the refinery upgrades the oil so that the finished product becomes chemically similar
to regular petroleum based diesel.
And that finished fuel is renewable diesel.
And drivers, they might not even notice it at the pump, because it can move directly
into the diesel supply.
The refining process is known as coprocessing, and get this, existing refineries?
They can actually handle renewable feedstocks like canola oil, alongside regular petroleum
operations.
That means refiners don't always have to build a brand new plant, totally from scratch.
They can actually just add the equipment to the size that already exists.
And really, that's the way Canada's already moving.
10 out of 18 oil refineries.
refineries in Canada have either finished or are working on equipment for renewable
fuels and it's huge for farmers. According to an industry group, about a third of Canadian
canola now ends up in the fuel industry. Some of that canola stays in Canada, but some also
gets exported to the US and Europe. Either way, the fuel market is now a major customer
for the crop. Imperial Oil's Strathcona Refinery, just near Edmonton, shows what this can look
like at scale, with a $720 million renewable diesel facility that just came online in July 2025.
That facility alone can yield 1 billion litres of renewable diesel annually. That's a big Canadian
example of canola just moving from farm supply chains into fuel production. And geography? Well,
that helps massively too. A lot of Canadian refineries are actually close to canola country,
so the crop and the fuel plants are often not too far apart. So in the end, it's not really about
replacing traditional diesel. It's more of a way to lower the carbon intensity of fuel that trucks,
farms, mines and industry still use every day.