Recent Trends of Biomass-based Diesel Production and Feedstocks Usage
Author
Published
9/1/2023
Based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Figure 1 shows the volumes of biomass-based diesel produced in the U.S. from calendar year 2012 to May 2023. Biomass-based diesel includes both biodiesel and renewable diesel. Biodiesel and renewable diesel are produced using the same type of feedstocks (oils, fats, and greases) but have different processing methods. Biodiesel can be mixed with petroleum diesel at a 5% (B5) to 20% (B20) ratio, whereas renewable diesel is chemically identical with diesel but is produced from non-petroleum renewable feedstocks. Because renewable diesel can be used in existing infrastructure and diesel engines, there is no requirement for its blending with diesel, making it a drop-in-fuel.
As shown in Figure 1, production of these two biofuels increased since 2012; however, production of renewable diesel has substantially increased since 2018, reflecting in part the lack of blending requirement advantage of renewable diesel over biodiesel and the drop-in-fuel quality of renewable diesel.
Despite variations, U.S. biodiesel production increased from 991 million gallons in 2012 to 1.86 billion gallons in 2018. In 2021, U.S....
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