Since the second phase of the Renewable Fuel Standards program (RFS) established under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which, among other objectives aimed to raise the production of renewable fuels, the U.S. production of renewable fuel has risen substantially. As Figure 1 shows, U.S. biodiesel production increased from 489.8 million gallons in 2007 to 1.3 billion gallons in 2014. Biodiesel production during the first nine months of 2015 reached a volume of 942.2 million gallons, increasing 2.2% compared to the same period in 2014.

Based on December 2015 data from the USDA (U.S. Bioenergy Statistics), in the 2006/07 agricultural marketing year, 13% of U.S. soybean oil production was used to produce biodiesel, whereas in 2014/15 that share increased to 23%. December 2015 data from the Monthly Biodiesel Production (MBD) report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), indicated that from January to October 2015, 4.0 billion pounds of soybean oil and 0.9 billion pounds of corn oil were used in biodiesel production. Some other feedstocks used in the biodiesel production during the same period were yellow grease (1.0 billion pounds), canola oil (0.7 billion pounds), and white grease (0.5 billion pounds). 

The November 2015 MBD report also indicated that as of September 2015, there were 97 biodiesel producers in the U.S. From January to September 2015, the average production capacity was 2.1 billion gallons per year, indicating that 44% of production capacity was employed in the biodiesel production during that period.  Iowa has nine biodiesel producers with an annual production capacity of 0.289 billion gallons/year.

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