Until recently, there have been four families of biofuels technologies related to diesel substitutes.
Conventional biodiesel. Transesterification of oil with sodium methylate represents 80 percent of the installed capacity in the U.S. The process features low capital expenditure (approximately $1 to $1.5/gallon) but requires the use of high-quality, low free fatty acid (FFA) feedstocks such as refined vegetable oils. The feedstock requirements for this process make these producers reliant on federal tax credits like the blenders tax credit (BTC) to support the production economics. Acid/base technology. This represents an evolution of the conventional transesterification process and includes a re-esterification step to remove FFA from feedstock. This approach can process waste feedstocks with high FFA levels but requires an expensive pretreatment step. Producers who invest in this pretreatment step can process waste oils and obtain a lower carbon-intensity (CI) score when selling fuel into California under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Renewable diesel. Produced through hydrotreating fats and oils, renewable diesel has caught a wave of investment in the U.S. and is the technology behind a majority of announced U.S. renewable fuel project capacity growth. Renewable diesel producers have the advantage of being able to process waste feedstocks and to manufacture drop-in diesel and jet fuel. Like biodiesel producers, they can generate higher LCFS credits through the use of waste feedstocks. Despite its advantages, renewable diesel is typically only economical if implemented through a refinery retrofit or applied at large scale for greenfield projects, due to the high capital costs compared to conventional biodiesel. Solid state or enzymatic catalysts. These technologies have a very small market footprint with only a few small plants in operation. They can also accept various feedstocks, but the high cost of the enzymes or the difficulties to purify the product downstream may be some of the challenges with this route. Air Liquide Portfolio Air Liquide Engineering &amp; Construction is active in each of these areas, with an extensive product portfolio in oleochemicals. Air Liquide is a leader in biodiesel plant design and has built more than 75 plants using its trademarked Lurgi biodiesel technology, including a recently completed 60 MMgy biodiesel plant in Wichita, Kansas, in 2019. Air Liquide&rsquo;s involvement in renewable diesel projects stems from its core business in the production and sale of hydrogen and its unique oil-splitting pretreatment technology. This patented technology combines ultra-degumming and bleaching with oil splitting to remove glycerin before the hydrogenation reactor. This oil-splitting step translates to increased production capacity, no propane byproduct, and lower hydrogen and utilities consumption, which ultimately further reduces the CI of the fuel. Air Liquide&rsquo;s engagement in biodiesel technologies has made it well-positioned to understand the advantages and shortcomings of each of these approaches, whether that be the high capex requirements of renewable diesel or the high operational costs associated with conventional biodiesel production. The most important concern is always how to best serve the more than 100 existing biodiesel facilities throughout the country, many of which are using Air Liquide&rsquo;s Lurgi biodiesel technology. Without federal tax credits, many of these facilities have struggled commercially for the past two years. With this experience and following discussions with a wide range of customers, Air Liquide identified the market need for a new approach that would feature low capital expenditure; retrofit ability for existing biodiesel plants; feedstock flexibility to allow use of low-quality, low-cost feedstocks; and, most importantly, the ability to be profitable even without tax credits. Inventure Renewables Having identified this market need, Air Liquide&rsquo;s path crossed with Inventure Renewables, a technology company with an impressive track record of innovation and recently commercialized technologies. One of them is a novel transesterification technology based on supercritical reaction without catalyst. This innovative biodiesel technology aligned perfectly with Air Liquide&rsquo;s analysis of the market need.
For Inventure, Air Liquide represented a strong partner with a global presence and the experience to commercialize, design and fabricate projects at scale. Both companies began collaborating in early 2019 and this resulted in a long-term partnership agreement in October making Air Liquide exclusive licensor of the Inventure process. This technology can process the least-expensive, lowest-cost waste oils and fats to produce distilled biodiesel and premium glycerin. The technology has been in commercial operation since 2017 and is a simple retrofit for existing transesterification facilities. This truly represents a game-changing process for the U.S. market, combining the advantages of existing technologies, but without any of the disadvantages. It can process any feedstock, including crude or refined vegetable oil, distillers corn oil, used cooking oil, acid oil, tallow, yellow grease and more with minimal cleaning required. Capex is similar to conventional biodiesel (around $1 to $1.5/gallon) and is considerably lower than renewable diesel&rsquo;s capex. Conversion costs are lower than any biofuel technology. All in, it adds up to a payback period of less than one year. The technology improves the economics of existing plants significantly, providing a 56-cent/gallon feedstock advantage and 74-cent/gallon LCFS credit advantage, totaling $1.30/gallon. Finally, and importantly, the Inventure process can be retrofitted into existing biodiesel facilities, as some of the front and backend equipment can be reused. Not only can this process fill a previously unoccupied niche in the biodiesel market, but it may be the only way some existing producers can survive long-term&mdash;without federal tax credits. Therefore, it has tremendous potential in the U.S. market. Author: Etienne Sturm Business Development Director Air Liquide Engineering &amp; Construction 713-624-8970 etienne.sturm@airliquide.com inventure@airliquide.com

Inventure Renewables installed its Mixed Super Critical Fluid biodiesel process technology at a Wilmar International Ltd. processing plant in Jiangsu province, China. In October 2019 Air Liquide became exclusive licensor of the Inventure process.   

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Many U.S. biodiesel producers have faced financial challenges due to absence of the blenders tax credit, but a novel process can be retrofitted into existing facilities and improve economics by up to $1.30 a gallon. 

Making Biodiesel Profitable Without Tax Credits?

Maintaining and updating a project such as Biodiesel Magazine&rsquo;s U.S. &amp; Canada Biodiesel Plant Map is no small feat. It requires untold hours of research, communication and an unwavering commitment to stay on top of changes in the industry throughout the year. For the 2020 iteration, Biodiesel Magazine made more than 100 phone calls in October alone, sent countless emails and performed hours of research to obtain the latest information on the state of the industry through its myriad individual projects. Naturally, one recurring theme that kept rearing its ugly head was the toll that the lack of the $1 per gallon federal biodiesel tax credit, which expired at the end of 2017, and the U.S. EPA&rsquo;s small refinery exemptions were having on the industry. Many producers had already announced plant closures, including three of World Energy&rsquo;s sites in Georgia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania; Renewable Energy Group&rsquo;s New Boston, Texas, plant; two of W2Fuel&rsquo;s facilities in Michigan and Iowa; Duonix (the Beatrice, Nebraska-based joint venture between Flint Hills Resources and Benefuel); and later, after our map efforts for the year had concluded, Integrity Biofuels in Indiana. Others yet, like American GreenFuels in New Haven, Connecticut, owned by Kolmar Americas, publicly announced significant cutbacks to production. There were numerous producers Biodiesel Magazine spoke with that were on the verge of idling production, many of which had already made the tough decision to begin manufacturing at only a fraction of their capacity, due to the ongoing policy issues facing the biodiesel industry. Years ago, Biodiesel Magazine made the conscious decision not to list whether a biodiesel plant was producing or idled, or at what level of production they were achieving if, indeed, they were producing at any given time. Due to the fickle nature of this industry, and the historic tie between production levels and federal policies such as the tax credit and Renewable Fuel Standard volumes, it was thought best to only list installed capacities&mdash;what a plant could produce given the right market signals&mdash;at existing assets and those under construction or expansion. Thus, unless the companies that own these known, idled assets divest themselves of these facilities, they will continue to be listed on the plant map. After all, like Roy Strom, president and CEO of W2Fuel told Biodiesel Magazine in late September, &ldquo;We are preparing everything to be mothballed for at least several months. We are protecting our reputation by doing this the right way, so if market conditions change, we can restart operations quickly. Our hope is the market will come back to equilibrium, making it viable for us to operate again. We don&rsquo;t plan to sell&mdash;we&rsquo;ve already made significant investments in our assets.&rdquo; Strom says he doesn&rsquo;t have a Plan B. And the same is true for many other producers. US Biodiesel In mid-October, during the height of the 2020 map&rsquo;s data collection efforts, Biodiesel Magazine learned that Cargill&rsquo;s 60 MMgy project in Wichita, Kansas, had been completed and was online. A company spokesperson said the plant was operating at capacity in October after opening in July. Plans for the $90 million project were first announced in September 2017. The new biodiesel facility is located next to Cargill&rsquo;s oilseed processing plant and replaced an existing soybean oil refinery. Air Liquide Engineering &amp; Construction was contracted for engineering, having already built six biodiesel plants for Cargill around the world using its Lurgi biodiesel process technology. Another project flipped the switch from under construction/expansion to existing as Green Biofuels Miami, a 7 MMgy plant in south Florida, became operational. In July 2018, Fabio Santos, engineer and CEO, advised that the company was working to expand capacity from 4 to 7 MMgy. A year later, this past summer, Santos said the facility had started up and begun regular operations. SJV Biodiesel in Pixley, California, a 5 MMgy supercritical plant co-located next to the Calgren Renewable Fuels ethanol refinery, was completed in 2019. Renewable Process Solutions designed and built the project. Lyle Schlyer, president of Calgren, said the plant was in operation long enough to discover that it needed additional equipment for post-distillation filtering to get the acid number down. &ldquo;About the same time, there was a failure with both of our vacuum pumps, so we had to replace them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to install them and restart the plant [early this year].&rdquo; SME Dublin in Georgia is also nearing completion. Frankie Mathis of Tactical Fabrication told Biodiesel Magazine that its capacity has been increased from 5 to 7.5 MMgy and SME Dublin should be online in the first quarter of this year. The plant will solely process brown grease, Mathis said. Kolmar Americas also has an added plant on this year&rsquo;s map. The company quietly took over the old Endicott Biofuels site in Port Arthur, Texas, and can produce 25 MMgy of biodiesel from palm fatty acid distillate. In October, Paul Teta, vice president of government and public affairs for Kolmar Americas, said American GreenFuels-Texas was running at 50 percent capacity and would shut down at the end of December if no certainty on the tax credit was provided. White Mountain Biodiesel in Haverhill, New Hampshire, changed ownership but its entry on the map hasn&rsquo;t changed. &ldquo;The White Mountain plant has been purchased by Renewable Fuels by Peterson LLC,&rdquo; Howard Peterson told Biodiesel Magazine. &ldquo;RFP has a sole member, which is Peterson&rsquo;s Oil Service Inc. of Worcester, Massachusetts. The plant is currently in production and is manufacturing biodiesel used for thermal energy in Massachusetts homes. All of the product is produced from feedstocks qualified under the Massachusetts APS credit program and blended with petroleum-based heating fuel. We currently are permitted under Title V and from the State of New Hampshire to produce 6.5 MMgy. The EIA rates the plant at 4 MMgy and will raise the rating when we exceed 4 MMgy in production. We are currently producing 3 to 3.5 MMgy. Our current focus is to finetune the production process and then ramp up to higher volumes. We still manufacture under ... the White Mountain name.&rdquo; Delek Renewables added a third biodiesel plant to its repertoire, in addition to its two production facilities in Texas and Arkansas. According to sources at the plant, Delek acquired the 7.5 MMgy JNS Biofuels plant in New Albany, Mississippi, and renamed it Delek Renewables-New Albany. Gold Coast Refining, a 40 MMgy plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has rebranded as GC Lipids. General Manager Mark Mauss said the plant is producing methyl esters but not biodiesel fuel currently. He added this could change, however, if the tax credit comes back. In May, High Plains Bioenergy, a division of Seaboard Foods, rebranded and subsequently changed the names of its two biodiesel plants in Missouri and Oklahoma. The 30 MMgy enzymatic biodiesel production facility in St. Joseph, Missouri, formerly owned by Blue Sun Biodiesel, which High Plains Energy acquired in 2016, has changed names from HPB-St. Joe Biodiesel to Seaboard Energy Missouri LLC. The company&rsquo;s biodiesel plant in Guymon, Oklahoma, has changed names from High Plains Bioenergy LLC to Seaboard Energy Oklahoma LLC. While the plant has historically featured a nameplate capacity of 30 MMgy, Mel Davis, Seaboard Foods vice president of bioenergy, told Biodiesel Magazine in May the facility has gradually increased its capacity to 45 MMgy over the past few years through a series of debottlenecking efforts. A new 60 MMgy project was added to the list this year under the name Tara Industries. According to William Johnson, vice president, the project is located in Tina, Missouri, and plans to use soy oil and animal fats. Biodiesel Magazine will continue to follow its development. Crimson Renewable Energy&rsquo;s expansion project from 24 to 36 MMgy being performed by Austria-based BDI-BioEnergy International continues to make progress. The new plant will feature RepCat technology, a patented biodiesel production system for low-quality feedstock with high free fatty acids (FFA) that employs a recyclable catalyst. BDI says the process technology&rsquo;s low-cost, recyclable catalyst bypasses complex treatment of glycerin, providing a high-purity coproduct and relatively low operating costs. Furthermore, the technology is extremely feedstock-flexible, allowing efficient processing of waste oils and fats of different kinds and origin. Tyson Keever of SeQuential, which was acquired by Crimson in 2018, said the Bakersfield expansion is well-underway. &ldquo;We are producing around 2 million gallons per month there and we are hoping to add another million per month [in 2020] when the expansion is complete.&rdquo; The expansion project was first announced in late 2017. BDI introduced the technology 12 years ago and the Crimson installation is a first of its kind in the U.S.
Jennifer Case, co-founder of San Diego-based New Leaf Biofuels, said the expansion project to more than double capacity from 5 to 12 MMgy at her plant is ongoing. &ldquo;We hope to be commissioning the new plant equipment by June,&rdquo; she said. After our 2019 map efforts concluded, Hero BX had acquired the former Clinton County Biodiesel facility in Clinton, Iowa. Hero BX purchased the assets from Tenaska Commodities LLC in late September 2018. Hero BX Iowa is operating, &ldquo;although at drastically reduced rates,&rdquo; said Chris Peterson, Hero BX president, in early October. &ldquo;It is a 10 MMgy multifeedstock plant and will be ramped up as soon as economics warrant. Things are difficult, as you can imagine, but we are fortunate compared to others in the industry. We are struggling along but have been able to retain all of our employees.&rdquo; Revamping the South Roxana, Illinois, plant has been put on hold pending the credit, Peterson said, but the design has changed from 15 to 20 MMgy. &ldquo;When our engineers got into it, we found that the sizing and equipment list was not considerably more expensive to do 20 vs. 15,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are ready to go as soon as the credit comes back, and the weather is cooperative. Assuming an early 2020 start, we should be operational there in early 2021.&rdquo; Sadly, the U.S. biodiesel industry lost two of its own this past year. Stu Lamb, president and CEO of Viesel Fuel, died Aug. 5, 2019, at 77 years old. Michelle Nyberg, Viesel Fuel senior vice president and chief financial officer, said the plant in North Fort Myers, Florida, is closed and if it ever reopens, it will likely be under new ownership with a new name. Also, the chief organic chemist and production manager specialist for American Biodiesel Energy, Chase Akerly, died at age 28. In late 2017 Akerly said the company was incorporated by his grandfather in 2007 and started operating a traditional biodiesel process. After a 2011 fire, the company rebuilt but was unsuccessful. Akerly said he began testing enzymatic processing with Novozymes in 2014. All in all, the 2019 plant map contained 121 U.S. biodiesel plants and projects under construction or expansion, while the 2020 map was reduced to 105 entries since several plants were removed after discovery that they were dismantled, repurposed, auctioned, or otherwise had been verified to no longer exist. In 2019, total capacity of existing plants in the U.S. was 2.471 billion gallons with another 190.5 million gallons under construction or expansion. For 2020, the capacity of existing U.S. plants ticked up slightly to nearly 2.516 billion gallons with 181 million gallons under construction or expansion. Canada While not much has changed north of the border with respect to biodiesel production capacity, there are three developments of note. Following Innoltek Inc.&rsquo;s acquisition in late 2017 of the 19 MMly Evoleum biodiesel plant formerly known as QFI Biodiesel in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, the company ceased operations at its biodiesel plant in Thetford Mines, Quebec, and has concentrated production in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Innoltek has relocated its headquarters to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu as well. CEO Simon Doray said production capacity at its new headquarters is 20 MMly. The Thetford Mines site was suffering from a location without rail access and was not near major highways, Doray said. In addition, the plant had limited capacity. It was dismantled and some of the equipment was moved to its new site. Invigor Bioenergy Corp. in Lethbridge, Alberta, which was listed on the 2019 map as existing with a 71 MMly capacity has been swapped to under construction/expansion with an 81 MMly capacity, as the company works to retrofit and expand operations. Also, Consolidated Biofuels Ltd., an 11.4 MMly plant in Delta, British Columbia, was added to the map. The plant is not new but did not gain the attention of Biodiesel Magazine until recently. The 2019 map featured 10 biodiesel plants in Canada with 663 million liters of existing capacity and 45 million liters under construction or expansion. The 2020 map features nine biodiesel plants in Canada with nearly 598 million liters of existing capacity and 126 million liters under construction or expansion. Renewable Diesel The most striking trend when comparing the 2019 map to the latest iteration is the growth of U.S. renewable diesel projects. Out of six renewable diesel listings on the 2019 map, the only construction or expansion project was Diamond Green Diesel&rsquo;s project in Norco, Louisiana, to move from 160 to 275 MMgy. Since the 2019 map was published in Fall 2018, that project had since been completed and the company nearly immediately undertook another major expansion, from 275 to 675 MMgy. Other than the World Energy Paramount (at 40 MMgy) facility in California and REG&rsquo;s Geismar, Louisiana, plant (75 MMgy), the other renewable diesel plants on the 2019 map were rather small. This changed, however, in 2020. Ryze Renewables has two projects under construction. One is at the old site of Biodiesel of Las Vegas in Nevada, at 100 MMgy. The other is near Reno, Nevada, and is scaled at 50 MMgy. Marathon Petroleum is also well underway with Phase 2 of its renewable diesel project in Dickinson, North Dakota. Phase 1 was coprocessing vegetable oils with crude oil feedstock, but Phase 2 is complete conversion of the oil refinery to produce renewable diesel at a scale of 184 MMgy. According to Ron Day with the refinery, full conversion is expected to be complete by late 2020. In late October 2018, World Energy announced a $350 million expansion project at Paramount over the next two years, to complete conversion of this former oil refinery to produce more than six times the volume of renewable fuels the 40 MMgy renewable diesel and biojet plant could previously produce. The plan is to produce 300 MMgy of renewable diesel, biojet fuel, green gasoline and renewable propane. &ldquo;California has in many ways become like a separate country,&rdquo; Gene Gebolys, founder of World Energy, told Biodiesel Magazine this fall. &ldquo;The LCFS program is strong and getting stronger. We have the only renewable diesel and [biojet] facility in the state. We are full steam ahead on that project. If anybody ever wondered whether strong, consistent public policy really leads to investment, our Los Angeles project certainly answers that question.&rdquo; All told, nearly 1 billion additional gallons of renewable diesel capacity growth is under construction in the U.S. (see chart) year over year. There are many more proposed renewable diesel projects in development, and the 2021 map is sure to reflect this. Author: Ron Kotrba Editor, Biodiesel Magazine 218-745-8347 rkotrba@bbiinternational.com

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Biodiesel Magazine highlights industry changes as discovered during the 2020 U.S. & Canada Biodiesel Plant Map data collection efforts. 

2020 Biodiesel Plant Map Reflections

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Crownâ€™s ACRE system employs a third transesterification reactor. 

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A demonstration-scale unit of Plasma Blueâ€™s liquid phase plasma discharge technology 

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Inside the Amsterdam plant, BDIâ€™s reference multifeedstock facility built 10 years ago. 

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New biodiesel process technologies continue to emerge, promising optimization of production through greater efficiencies and lower costs. 

Innovations in Biodiesel Technology

Pacific Biodiesel founder Bob King and daughter Jenna Long, director of operations, drive the companyâ€™s mission of sustainable, local energy production in Hawaii.   

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Pacific Biodiesel got its start in 1995 by attempting to curb improper grease disposal and converting it to biodiesel to power the on-site generators at Central Maui Landfill. Today, its fleet of trucks is 100 percent powered by biodiesel. 

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Pacific Biodieselâ€™s 5.5 MMgy plant on Hawaii Island is a milestone in technological achievement for the company.   

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A â€œfounding familyâ€� photo, taken in Pacific Biodieselâ€™s first blooming sunflower field on Maui on Earth Day 2017. From left, son Aaron King, Kelly, Bob, and Chris and Jenna Long with their daughter.   

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Celebrating 25 years, the Hawaii-based company that has built biodiesel plants across the U.S. and Japan has gone back to its roots, focusing on sustainability and local energy independence for the archipelago. 

Coming Full Circle

In November, the National Biodiesel Board released a new report, &ldquo;The Importance of the Biodiesel Tax Credit,&rdquo; written by ABF Economics. It explains how tax and RIN credit values are crucial in helping biodiesel producers compete with petroleum and expand production. The report shows uncertainty surrounding tax credit reinstatement as a major reason the industry is operating below capacity. Ten biodiesel plants have cut production or closed in 2019, laying off workers in Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas. The report was part of NBB&rsquo;s all-out advocacy effort to achieve policy stability for the industry&mdash;not just on the tax credit, but on the Renewable Fuel Standard and international trade as well. NBB&rsquo;s efforts were multiplied as 40 Democratic representatives sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in November, urging her to make the credit a priority before end of year. More than 145 businesses and trade associations also added their logos to an NBB-led letter to congressional leaders. NBB also brought more than 100 member-company representatives to Washington, D.C., for meetings with 88 Capitol Hill offices. Congress did not address the tax credit by the end of November, leaving it expired for two full years. NBB continues to advocate for a multiyear extension with retroactive availability for 2018-&rsquo;19. The tax credit isn&rsquo;t the industry&rsquo;s only source of uncertainty. U.S. EPA&rsquo;s RFS small refinery exemptions destroyed demand for biodiesel and renewable diesel. Backlash against the August round of 31 exemptions prompted President Trump to promise change. EPA proposed and took comment on a method for estimating the exemptions as part of its 2020 rule. Unfortunately, the proposal didn&rsquo;t match the president&rsquo;s promise or restore lost gallons from prior exemptions. The backlash continued, even as biofuel supporters filed additional comments. Because EPA opened the supplemental comment period, it did not finalize the annual RFS rule by its Nov. 30 deadline. The industry continues to ask EPA to raise advanced biofuel volumes, properly address the 2016 waiver as directed by a federal court and include the best estimate of future exemptions&mdash;one based on a three-year average of past exemptions. Another unresolved concern for U.S. biodiesel producers is the status of trade duties against Argentina. In early 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce set duties on Argentina and Indonesia to counter years of unfair trade practices. Then, surprisingly, in November 2018, the department decided to reexamine the duties on Argentina and, in July, proposed to virtually eliminate countervailing duties. The commerce department did not finalize a decision by its original deadline, and the industry continues to wait for developments. NBB&rsquo;s efforts to secure certainty on these policy issues will continue in 2020. The biodiesel industry needs policy certainty to continue investments and growth in the competitive fuel market.

NBB members visited with numerous Capitol Hill offices, including Rep. Abby Finkenauer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (center front), during NBBâ€™s fall membership meeting in Washington, D.C.

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In November, the NBB released a new report, â€œThe Importance of the Biodiesel Tax Credit,â€� written by ABF Economics. It explains how tax and RIN credit values are crucial in helping biodiesel producers compete with petroleum and expand production. 

The Importance of the Biodiesel Tax Credit

As a member-driven and member-focused trade association, the National Biodiesel Board welcomed its membership for the annual fall meeting, Nov. 18-20 in Washington, D.C., to focus on critical policy initiatives and move the biodiesel industry forward. During the meeting, NBB members elected industry representatives to serve on the governing board to help the development and success of biodiesel. &ldquo;As the national trade association representing America&rsquo;s advanced biofuel, it is critical that we are led by a strong team of advocates from all sectors of the industry,&rdquo; said Donnell Rehagen, NBB CEO. &ldquo;The NBB governing board continues to strive to move America-made fuel forward and expand our nearly 3 billion-gallon market.&rdquo; NBB members voted to fill seven board member spots for two-year terms: &bull; Kent Engelbrecht, Archer Daniels Midland Co. &bull; Chad Stone, Renewable Energy Group Inc. &bull; Ryan Pederson, North Dakota Soybean Council &bull; Harry Simpson, Crimson Renewable Energy LLC &bull; Paul Soanes, RBF Port Neches LLC &bull; Dave Walton, Iowa Soybean Association &bull; Tim Ostrem, South Dakota Soybean Research and &nbsp;&nbsp; Promotion Council Troy Alberts, Rob Shaffer, Jeff Lynn, Tim Keaveney, Greg Anderson, Mike Rath, Robert Morton and Tom Brooks continue to serve on the board. The board also elected Chad Stone as chairman, Mike Rath as vice chairman, Rob Shaffer as 2nd vice chairman, Ryan Pederson as treasurer, and Troy Alberts as secretary. &ldquo;Our association is sure that Chad Stone will serve our industry to his fullest capacity as new chairman and help us reach our lofty goals,&rdquo; Rehagen said. NBB also recognized retiring chairman, Kent Engelbrecht, for his three years of dedication and service. This three-year term is the maximum allowed by the association&rsquo;s bylaws. &ldquo;Under his leadership, the biodiesel industry has achieved a great deal of growth and development,&rdquo; Rehagen said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited he will remain on the board where we can continue to benefit from his expertise and passion.&rdquo; In addition, NBB thanked retiring governing board member Ron Heck. &ldquo;Ron has been a tireless advocate for agriculture and biodiesel,&rdquo; Rehagen said. &ldquo;I have always admired his ability to understand the market dynamics from the farm field all the way through biodiesel production and distribution. This knowledge has allowed him to represent our members&rsquo; interests exceptionally well in some critical moments of our industry. We will miss his strong and consistent leadership.&rdquo; The NBB governing board reflects the wide range of member companies in the biodiesel industry, from feedstock operations to producers.

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NBB Members Elect New Board Leadership 

Florida Power &amp; Light Co. embraces environmental stewardship as a core value and has used biodiesel fuel regularly for nearly 20 years&mdash;one vital component of its corporate responsibility strategy. The utility is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, the world&rsquo;s largest producer of renewable power from wind and solar, and powers its entire fleet of diesel vehicles and equipment with biodiesel blends. &ldquo;Biodiesel really fits right into what we do,&rdquo; said Patti Earley, FPL&rsquo;s fleet fuels operations specialist. &ldquo;We are a very green company.&rdquo; FPL manages fuel for 3,900 vehicles that serve and support 5 million customer accounts across Florida. Biodiesel helps FPL meet its alternative energy commitments under the Energy Policy Act by reducing petroleum consumption in vehicles. Through its use of electric, hybrid and biodiesel vehicles, the utility avoided using 576,000 gallons of petroleum fuel in 2018 and reduced CO2 emissions by 5,600 tons. More than half of those benefits were achieved with biodiesel. &ldquo;We overcomply every year by a large number because of the amount of biodiesel we use,&rdquo; Earley said. FPL promotes its green fuel policies with messaging on its trucks and storage tanks. The biodiesel program began quietly in 1999, when the utility authorized its wet-hose fuel supplier to begin filling many diesel vehicles and pieces of equipment with B20. The utility did not alert employees to the change but tracked maintenance records over a six-month period. No issues were detected, and employees reported no performance changes, so the utility made the switch official and it has been using biodiesel blends fleet-wide ever since. Earley said the fleet has used blends up to B35 with no problem but has now standardized B20 to maintain consistency across all operations. &ldquo;We do a lot of outreach through the Clean Cities program and to municipalities across the state,&rdquo; Earley said. &ldquo;After a number of these presentations, municipal officials would ask if they could buy from us.&rdquo; In the interest of expanding biodiesel usage, the utility now sells biodiesel blends under its own Earth Era brand. &ldquo;The great thing about biodiesel is it&rsquo;s a drop-in fuel,&rdquo; Earley said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t make any changes to fixed fuel sites or changes to the transport equipment. And you don&rsquo;t have to make any changes to the equipment it is being pumped into. If one of our trucks needs to go to a filling station and get straight ultra-low sulfur diesel and then go back to B20 when we fill it the next time, it doesn&rsquo;t matter.&rdquo; That flexibility is particularly valuable in utility work, because repair crews and equipment travel across the country to provide mutual aid in the event of hurricanes and other catastrophes. They switch from straight diesel to biodiesel blends depending on where they are, and they cannot afford to have fuel-related issues. Earley said the company will continue to use biodiesel as a cleaner, sustainable alternative to power its fleet. With a promise of performance, superior lubricity and endless environmental benefits, biodiesel is a win-win for Florida fuel.&nbsp;

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Florida Power & Light Co. embraces environmental stewardship as a core value and has used biodiesel fuel regularly for nearly 20 years—one vital component of its corporate responsibility strategy.

Florida is Fueled with Biodiesel 

Each year the National Biodiesel Board communications team conducts online surveys of U.S. voters to track trends, gauge awareness of biodiesel, and see what messages resonate with consumers. &ldquo;Awareness and positive impressions of biodiesel among key audiences remain critical to maintaining support for the industry,&rdquo; said Kaleb Little, NBB&rsquo;s communications director. This year the poll gathered responses from 1,064 registered voters across the country and showed consistent results with prior polling from 2017 and 2018. In September 2019, 73% of respondents said they were aware of biodiesel. The demographics most likely to have heard of biodiesel included individuals with a household income of $75,000-$99,000 (86%), men age 18-34 (86%), voters employed full-time (80%), and college and post-grads (79%). While 2019&rsquo;s 73% awareness is significantly better than NBB&rsquo;s first survey of just 27% awareness in June 2004, it is below peak awareness of 86% in September 2009. Along with awareness, 2019 respondents had 54% positive and only 3% negative impressions of biodiesel, with 44% saying no opinion or don&rsquo;t know. While NBB would like to see higher positive opinions, a 3% negative impression is extremely low. Additionally, there is a drastic difference in positive impressions in those familiar with biodiesel vs. those not familiar&mdash;71% positive in those familiar compared to just 35% positive in those unfamiliar. &ldquo;The annual national poll also looked at awareness of and attitudes toward biodiesel in federal policies that support the industry,&rdquo; Little explained. &ldquo;The results show a candidate&rsquo;s support for policies to promote clean energy, including biodiesel and renewable diesel use, can influence votes.&rdquo; Among the respondents, more than half (57%) of all respondents agreed that federal policy should encourage use of biodiesel and renewable diesel. When asked about issues that affect their votes, a strong majority of the polled registered voters (81%) indicated that a candidate&rsquo;s position on renewable fuels is important. Overall, 86% of respondents indicated that a candidate&rsquo;s position on clean energy is important or very important to their voting preferences. Further, 85% of respondents agreed it is important that President Donald Trump keep his promises on the Renewable Fuel Standard. When informed that biodiesel is America&rsquo;s first and most widely available advanced biofuel and has demonstrated environmental benefits, more than three-quarters (76%) of respondents supported increased use. High percentages of respondents agreed that the government should &ldquo;stand with American workers, manufacturers, rural economies and businesses&rdquo; to support a clean fuels industry (83%) and &ldquo;follow the law to implement an existing mandate that creates jobs and economic development across the country&rdquo; (82%). Nearly four of every five respondents expressed support for existing federal programs that encourage increased production and use of advanced biofuels. Seventy-eight percent of respondents support the federal tax incentive for biodiesel, and 79% support the RFS. Additionally, 79% of respondents would encourage local communities and governments to promote use of biodiesel. &ldquo;If awareness equates so strongly to positive impressions, we must increase biodiesel awareness to increase support,&rdquo; Little said. &ldquo;This is why NBB is so driven to amplify biodiesel messaging and raise industry voices to span across the country.&rdquo;

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Each year the NBB conducts online surveys of U.S. voters to track trends and gauge awareness of biodiesel. This year the poll gathered responses from 1,064 registered voters and showed consistent results with prior polling from 2017 and 2018. 

National Voter Survey Shows Strong Support for Biodiesel Industry

Our theme this year for the National Biodiesel Conference &amp; Expo is Vision 2020, and it is fitting for many reasons. First, it&rsquo;s critical that any industry have a clear and complete vision of what it wants to accomplish. Taking a road trip without the benefit of knowing where you are going many times leads to wrong turns, backtracking and wasted time. NBB undertook a formal strategic planning process in the second half of 2019 to ask the tough questions, define the challenges and opportunities, and to lay out a roadmap to achieving those objectives over the next three to five years. So, our vision of the future is clearer and sharper, and it&rsquo;s a future full of growth&mdash;but not without challenges. The past several years have told us that the &ldquo;brand awareness&rdquo; of biodiesel and renewable diesel is not where we need it to be. Although the vast majority of respondents in our annual survey were aware of and supportive of biodiesel, the awareness of our products and how our industry works among our policymakers in D.C. and statehouses around the country is lagging. We saw this on display in 2019 as the Renewable Fuel Standard was under attack through the increased issuance of small refinery exemptions (SREs), and the tax credit was allowed to be expired for nearly two years. This demonstrates a lack of awareness of how those policies&mdash;individually and collectively&mdash;have come to drive our entire industry. We have to boldly attack that lack of awareness and apply resources to quickly educate policymakers above and beyond what we are already doing. Our industry cannot be a second thought to other alternatives and must take its rightful place as a significant economic and environmental influencer, and we must be recognized as an essential energy industry to support. In 2019, NBB increased its collaboration with agricultural partners to amplify our messaging. It is critical to our industry success going forward that we continue to grow and expand our footprint by partnering with supporting industries. I want to thank our nation&rsquo;s soybean farmers who answered our call to action to advocate for biodiesel, individually and collectively through their trade associations.
We are truly stronger together. The voices of our opposition are strong and well-entrenched, and we will have to step up our game even more to keep our messaging clear and consistent. Speaking of messaging, we all know how succinct a message must be for people to remember it. Nike&rsquo;s Just Do It campaign is an example of a short verse that can be interpreted in many different ways and makes the listener think. For biodiesel, we are launching our new tag line to help with future messaging: Biodiesel. Better. Cleaner. Now! Biodiesel is here now&mdash;it&rsquo;s not a fuel to be discovered in the future. So, expect to see more of this messaging coming in 2020 and beyond as we try to simplify the many reasons that biodiesel deserves support and should be viewed as the fuel of choice for diesel platforms. We welcome your use of this messaging in your day-to-day communications as we work to improve and reshape the way Americans view biodiesel. I look upon this past year and am in awe of each of your efforts and commitments to America&rsquo;s advanced biofuel. I ask that you stick with us and join us in raising your voice to share biodiesel&rsquo;s powerful, impactful story throughout this coming season. NBB is your business partner and we look forward to working alongside you to grow our brand, grow our demand, and expand on the many marvelous aspects of the best fuel on the planet&mdash;and the best fuel for the planet.&nbsp; Donnell Rehagen CEO National Biodiesel Board

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The theme this year for the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo is Vision 2020, and it is fitting for many reasons. First, it's critical that any industry have a clear and complete vision of what it wants to accomplish. 

A Vision for Biodiesel

Chemical company Evonik Corp. is increasing its production capacity for biodiesel catalyst sodium methylate at its Rosario/Santa Fe facility in Argentina from 60,000 to 90,000 metric tons. The increased capacity will be built out in two stages and is expected to be complete in 2021. Evonik&rsquo;s expansion of sodium methylate production is being driven by soaring biodiesel demand in Argentina and Brazil and follows several recent biodiesel production capacity additions in the region. Evonik is also investing in infrastructure and logistics improvements in South America, including expanded storage solutions in the region to ensure continuous supply reliability to its customers. Greasezilla has been selected by Hampton Roads Sanitation District to provide fats, oils and grease (FOG) separation technology for the Nansemond Treatment Plant in Suffolk, Virginia. The construction of the new facility is expected to begin in the spring. Jacobs will be responsible for placement of the major system components and is overseeing the facility, which will screen, decant and process the FOG from indirect haulers. The Greasezilla system will sit ahead of the wastewater treatment facility and process up to 7.5 million gallons of FOG per year. Greasezilla&rsquo;s two-tank, two-boiler system runs on a small fraction of the grease it separates from the wastewater. HRSD provides service to nearly 2 million people. &nbsp;&nbsp; Swedish public firm Azelio AB has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with U.S. biodiesel company Biodico Inc. for a project in Atascadero, California. The MOU involves Azelio&rsquo;s energy storage technology beginning with commercial demonstration of Biodico&rsquo;s modular biofuels system. The MOU lays out several years of collaboration between the two companies. Azelio&rsquo;s technology will supply Biodico&rsquo;s system with electricity on demand from wind and solar power to produce biodiesel and renewable natural gas. The California Energy Commission has pre-accepted Biodico&rsquo;s commercial showcase project to apply for a full grant proposal by the end of 2019. In July, Biodico&rsquo;s 10 MMgy biodiesel plant in Five Points, California, was destroyed by fire. Oil refiner and distributor HollyFrontier Corp. plans to build a renewable diesel unit (RDU) at its Navajo refinery in Artesia, New Mexico. The RDU will have a production capacity of approximately 125 MMgy and allow HollyFrontier to process soybean oil and other feedstocks into renewable diesel. This investment will provide HollyFrontier the opportunity to meet the demand for low-carbon fuels while covering the cost of its annual RIN credit purchase obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The RDU, along with corresponding rail infrastructure and storage tanks, is estimated to cost $350 million and be complete in early 2022. Construction will be funded with cash on hand and is expected to generate an internal rate of return between 20 and 30 percent. Western Dubuque Biodiesel has received recognition from the U.S. Department of Labor&rsquo;s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for achieving 1 million hours with zero lost-time accidents. The Farley, Iowa-based biodiesel production plant opened in 2006 and can produce 33 MMgy. &ldquo;This award is a credit to the great team we have in Farley,&rdquo; said Tom Brooks, general manager of Western Dubuque Biodiesel. &ldquo;Our entire organization understands the importance of creating a safe work environment so everyone can go home to their families safe every night. We built our facility with safety foremost in our minds, and we have redundancy in our procedures to ensure it. We have buddy systems, weekly safety reviews and annual safety training, among other best-practice procedures.&rdquo; Western Dubuque Biodiesel earned its BQ-9000 certification in 2007, which includes a safety component in addition to quality assurance recognition. International biodiesel marketer and distributor Targray has opened a new biodiesel terminal in Antwerp, Belgium. Targray&rsquo;s Antwerp Biodiesel Terminal is a 24/7 biofuel storage and blending center serving fuel producers, distributors, traders and retailers in markets throughout Europe. The terminal is strategically positioned within Europe&rsquo;s largest petrochemical center and connects to EU customer bases through various transportation modes, including rail, sea, inland waterway, and over-the-road networks. Targray began taking orders at the new terminal in third-quarter 2019 and supplies commercial volumes of biodiesel from a broad range of feedstocks.

Evonikâ€™s sodium methylate facility in Rosario/Santa Fe, Argentina

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HRSDâ€™s Nansemond Treatment Plant in Suffolk, Virginia 

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From left, Western Dubuque Biodiesel General Manager Tom Brooks, Vice Chairman Bruce Klostermann, and Plant Manager Troy Gibbs

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Targrayâ€™s new biodiesel terminal in Antwerp, Belgium

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Business Briefs

We are living in interesting, historic times.&nbsp; On the cusp of our nation&rsquo;s third impeachment trial of a sitting U.S. president in the Senate over a nearly 250-year history&mdash;had Richard Nixon not resigned, it likely would have been four&mdash;we are treading waters rarely ventured. Other than Andrew Johnson&rsquo;s impeachment in the 1860s, all other impeachment proceedings have taken place in the past 45 years, with Nixon&rsquo;s in 1974, Bill Clinton&rsquo;s in 1998 and now Trump&rsquo;s in 2019-&rsquo;20. None of the previous efforts had ever culminated in a conviction in the Senate and removal of a president from office, and today&rsquo;s impeachment is unlikely to either. However, the difference is that none of the previous presidents faced an election following impeachment, so this is new territory. Despite one&rsquo;s view on impeachment, the hyperpartisan, polarized nature of our Republic today is a travesty&mdash;particularly when whole sectors of the economy, like biodiesel, are relying on our executive and legislative branches of government to work together and do the people&rsquo;s business, such as reinstating the biodiesel tax credit that&rsquo;s been expired for nearly two years, and following RFS law to grow advanced biofuels. With any hope and luck, by the time you are reading this, the incentive will have been reinstated. At press time, the House passed a $1.4 trillion spending package that included a five-year extension of the full $1 per gallon credit, retroactive from its expiration on Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2022.&nbsp; In October, I made more than 100 calls and sent countless emails to biodiesel producers across the U.S. and Canada for our 2020 plant map data collection efforts. The state of the tax credit was center stage in most of these conversations as producers shared their experiences with me&mdash;how many of them, of you, were readying to cut production further than they already had or idle their plants altogether if at least a modicum of certainty did not return. It was hard listening to the despair in many of their, your, voices. For a review of the data gleaned from this project and trends seen in the industry, be sure to read &ldquo;2020 Biodiesel Plant Map Reflections&rdquo; on page 36. As you will read in our producer profile, &ldquo;Coming Full Circle&rdquo; on page 14, Pacific Biodiesel turns 25 years old this year. The changes the company has endured since its founding in 1995 are akin to a microcosm of how the industry has been forced to adapt to uncertainty and market highs and lows throughout the years. Little did Bob and Kelly King know then in the mid-&rsquo;90s that come 2020 they could call themselves America&rsquo;s longest operating producer. Furthermore, the retail biodiesel pump they installed turned out to be America&rsquo;s first. Congratulations to Bob, Kelly, Jenna and the entire King family and Pacific Biodiesel team! Despite the hardship producers have endured, there is no shortage of innovation in the world of biodiesel, as evidenced in our cover article and Spotlight section, &ldquo;Innovations in Biodiesel Technology,&rdquo; on page 24; and by our contribution article, &ldquo;Making Biodiesel Profitable Without Tax Credits?&rdquo; on page 40, written by Etienne Sturm with Air Liquide Engineering &amp; Construction. I look forward to seeing many of you at the National Biodiesel Conference &amp; Expo in Tampa in January, and in Minneapolis this June at our inaugural Biodiesel Production Technology Summit. To learn more about this event, or to submit an abstract by Feb. 14, visit BiodieselTechnologySummit.com. Until then, keep the dream alive! Author: Ron Kotrba Editor Biodiesel Magazine rkotrba@bbiinternational.com

2020 Winter Issue

Business Briefs

Business Briefs

Columns

A Vision for Biodiesel

Interesting Times

Featured

2020 Biodiesel Plant Map Reflections

Innovations in Biodiesel Technology

Coming Full Circle

Contributions

Making Biodiesel Profitable Without Tax Credits?