How is biodiesel doing these days? Apparently pretty well. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that this past May, biodiesel production reached a record level of 111 million gallons, with this total coming from 116 active biodiesel plants with total operating capacity of 2.2 billion gallons per year.
Some 449 million gallons was produced during the first five months of 2013, an increase of 17 million gallons from the same period the previous year. Biodiesel created during this period consumed 3,427 million pounds of feedstocks, with an average 7.6 pounds of feedstock for every gallon of biodiesel produced. Soybean oil represented 1,838 million pounds, or about 54 percent of the total.
Most biodiesel fuel is blended with conventional petroleum diesel fuel and used for transportation. For comparison, biodiesel accounted for less than 2 percent of U.S. distillate fuel oil product supplied during the first five months of 2013.
Biodiesel blending for motor fuel is supported by federal mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard program. EPA sets annual targets for the use of biodiesel and other biofuel categories, such as advanced and total biofuels, which can also be satisfied through additional biodiesel use. Biodiesel blenders are currently eligible for a federal tax credit of $1 per gallon blended.