EM Biofuels launches RINPlus program to validate biodiesel RINs
Photo: EM Biofuels LLC
July 19, 2012
BY Ron Kotrba
Houston-based EM Biofuels LLC is launching its trademarked RINPlus assurance program, a web-enabled platform that allows obligated parties under the renewable fuel standard to verify the genealogy of each batch of renewable identification numbers, from feedstock to RIN generation and separation, the company says.
EM Biofuels also says in addition to documents such as engineering reviews, operating permits and corporate formation paperwork, the program will provide coproduct monitoring, site audits and spot product testing.
RINPlus joins several other programs on the market, including the National Biodiesel Board supported RIN Integrity Network by Genscape, developed as private sector responses to isolated but damaging cases of fraud in the marketplace. U.S. EPA runs the RFS2 program and says obligated parties who purchased bad RINs did essentially no due diligence. EM Biofuels LLC says RINPlus will allow obligated parties to easily conduct their due diligence and biodiesel makers to monetize their RINs at top-tier prices now only available to large producers.
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The company says RINPlus also provides users with a critical data warehousing service. Documents needed to fulfill the RFS2 recordkeeping requirements for the five-year period mandated under RFS2 are stored in the system, simplifying annual reporting and attestation requirements for obligated parties and producers.
“We began working with both producers and obligated parties in 2011, listening to their concerns and incorporating their ideas regarding the specific aspects a RIN assurance platform needed to address,” said Ken Nelson, senior vice president of EM Biofuels. “The end result is a platform that has the capacity to become a secure and efficient marketplace for RINs.”
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The system features a mobile data collection application that integrates with a biodiesel plant’s real-time operations, capturing plant data and establishing the authenticity of RINs “without requiring prohibitive upfront hardware and audit expenses,” the company says. It also allows compliance managers to create reports summarizing their RIN portfolio with supporting documentation to demonstrate due diligence efforts for internal and external compliance reporting.
In early 2013 RINPlus will also feature an exchange platform for transactions, in addition to inventory management functionality.
The program will launch Sept. 4.
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