On Friday, Vertex Energy, an oil company based in Texas, unveiled a new facility at its Saraland refinery that will produce renewable diesel fuel from soybean oil.

“As we like to say, we’re not just cutting ribbons today, we’re cutting emissions,” Benjamin Cowart, founder and CEO of Vertex, said Friday. “We’re not just blazing a trail for the industry, we’re doing it for our city, we’re doing it for Alabama.”

The fuel will serve as a drop-in replacement for any standard diesel fuel, Wes Mock, site general manager for the Vertex facility in Saraland which produces transportation diesel fuel, said. Though the site will still produce standard diesel fuel, as well as gasoline and jet fuel, over 8,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel fuel will be produced at the facility, Mock said. A planned second phase of the diesel facility will bring the capacity to 14,000 barrels a day of renewable diesel.

The refinery in Saraland was previously owned by Shell and purchased by Vertex last year. In doing so, Vertex saved 200 jobs, Bradley Byrne, CEO of the Mobile Chamber, said Friday. And the economic impact of the new renewable diesel facility is far greater than 200 jobs, Byrne said.

“There were no incentives on this project, they just did it,” Byrne said. “That shows you the strength of this particular plant, the strength of this industrial community, and the confidence they have.”

According to Vertex, 600 jobs were created at the peak of construction last year. Vertex also said that $4 million was spent by the construction workforce on hotels and food, and $115 million went to local engineering firms and contractors—Hargrove Engineers and Constructors were the lead firm on the project.

In addition to the economic benefit, there’s also an environmental one: Mock says that the renewable diesel will produce about half of the carbon emissions that the production of petroleum diesel requires. Renewable diesel is not the same as biodiesel, which must be blended with petroleum diesel, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Because the fuel can be used in the same way as standard diesel fuel, for trucks, tractor or semis and any other machines that use diesel fuel, less brand-new infrastructure was needed, Daniel Hill, project manager for the renewable diesel plant said.

Mock says that the renewable diesel will also have broader impact beyond the refinery. The fuel will primarily be exported to California, where there are incentives for using renewable diesel fuels, he says, but the economic benefits will still be felt in Alabama. Though Mock wouldn’t say how many of the soybean farmers the company works with will be based in Alabama, he did say the soybeans will be both imported and locally sourced.

“It’s a bit of a mix, this is a newer industry around utilizing soybeans for the production of diesel fuel,” Mock said. “We’re ramping up a lot of the aspects of supply, in terms of our feed stocks.”

At Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Mock and Byrne both spoke, as well as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood. Cowart and Hill also spoke.

In her remarks, Ivey talked about the importance of the plant to the state.

“All while contributing to the economic sector Alabama was built on, our agricultural industry,” Ivey said. “Alabama’s economy depends on our agricultural products, and Vertex introducing this renewable diesel, it’s the fuel of the future.”