Paraffins can be produced with various processes from fossil or renewable feedstocks. Synthetic fuels are produced by gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) liquefaction from natural gas (Gas-to-Liquid, GTL), and coal (Coal -to-Liquid, CTL). Biomass-based BTL (Biomass-to-Liquid) is not yet commercially available. Low-temperature FT process maximizes production of paraffinic middle distillates, whereas high-temperature FT produces different hydrocarbon mixtures (Alleman et al. 2003).

Hydrotreating of oils and fats is a novel process for producing renewable paraffinic diesel, abbreviated HVO. In production, hydrogen is used to remove oxygen from the triglyceride vegetable oil or animal fat molecules. In addition, tall oil, a residue from pulp production can be used as a feedstock. Hydrogen needed for the HVO process is today made from natural gas, but it could also be made from biogas or other renewable sources. When comparing HVO and biodiesel (FAME) production processes it can be concluded that both need about the same amount fossil feed i.e. H₂ for HVO and methanol for FAME.

Both processes, Fischer-Tropsch and hydrotreatment, can be optimized for different products/ compositions. Today, processes are optimized to produce n-paraffins and isoparaffins for diesel, some processes also produce cyclo-paraffins.