WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:09.760 So you probably think of canola oil as just something you put on the frying pan, but a 00:09.760 --> 00:12.600 lot of it now ends up in diesel tanks. 00:12.600 --> 00:19.340 Canola is by far Canada's most valuable crop, generating 3.7 billion in farm cash receipts 00:19.340 --> 00:24.080 in the first three months of the year, and a growing source of that value is in energy. 00:24.080 --> 00:28.040 The climate policy that started under the Harper government pushed refineries to add 00:28.040 --> 00:31.880 cleaner sources to the mix, and that's where canola comes in. 00:31.880 --> 00:33.600 So how does it work? 00:33.600 --> 00:38.000 First the seeds are crushed, separating the oil from the solid part of the seed, which 00:38.000 --> 00:39.640 is called meal. 00:39.640 --> 00:41.680 After that the oil can go two ways. 00:41.680 --> 00:46.880 It can either become cooking oil, or it can be sent into the fuel system as a raw material 00:46.880 --> 00:48.480 for renewable diesel. 00:48.480 --> 00:53.400 So now we get to the refinery, and the canola oil can't just be mixed into the diesel. 00:53.400 --> 00:57.000 It has to be processed further before it can become fuel. 00:57.000 --> 00:58.000 The simple version? 00:58.000 --> 01:03.280 Well, the refinery upgrades the oil so that the finished product becomes chemically similar 01:03.280 --> 01:05.840 to regular petroleum based diesel. 01:05.840 --> 01:08.720 And that finished fuel is renewable diesel. 01:08.720 --> 01:12.520 And drivers, they might not even notice it at the pump, because it can move directly 01:12.520 --> 01:14.200 into the diesel supply. 01:14.200 --> 01:19.560 The refining process is known as coprocessing, and get this, existing refineries? 01:19.560 --> 01:25.080 They can actually handle renewable feedstocks like canola oil, alongside regular petroleum 01:25.080 --> 01:26.480 operations. 01:26.480 --> 01:31.200 That means refiners don't always have to build a brand new plant, totally from scratch. 01:31.200 --> 01:35.560 They can actually just add the equipment to the size that already exists. 01:35.560 --> 01:38.680 And really, that's the way Canada's already moving. 01:38.680 --> 01:40.000 10 out of 18 oil refineries. 01:40.000 --> 01:44.424 refineries in Canada have either finished or are working on equipment for renewable 01:44.424 --> 01:50.544 fuels and it's huge for farmers. According to an industry group, about a third of Canadian 01:50.544 --> 01:56.704 canola now ends up in the fuel industry. Some of that canola stays in Canada, but some also 01:56.704 --> 02:02.304 gets exported to the US and Europe. Either way, the fuel market is now a major customer 02:02.304 --> 02:07.664 for the crop. Imperial Oil's Strathcona Refinery, just near Edmonton, shows what this can look 02:07.664 --> 02:16.624 like at scale, with a $720 million renewable diesel facility that just came online in July 2025. 02:16.624 --> 02:23.344 That facility alone can yield 1 billion litres of renewable diesel annually. That's a big Canadian 02:23.344 --> 02:29.184 example of canola just moving from farm supply chains into fuel production. And geography? Well, 02:29.184 --> 02:34.864 that helps massively too. A lot of Canadian refineries are actually close to canola country, 02:34.864 --> 02:40.704 so the crop and the fuel plants are often not too far apart. So in the end, it's not really about 02:40.704 --> 02:46.224 replacing traditional diesel. It's more of a way to lower the carbon intensity of fuel that trucks, 02:46.224 --> 02:55.424 farms, mines and industry still use every day.