Industry welcomes updated DOE biodiesel guide

The biodiesel industry welcomed the publication of the U.S. DOE’s fifth edition of the Biodiesel Handling and Use Guide, developed in conjunction with the DOE Clean Cities program. The guide is a comprehensive document designed to educate those who blend, distribute and use biodiesel and biodiesel blends. It provides basic information on the proper and safe use of biodiesel in engines and boilers, and is intended to help fleets, individual users, blenders, distributors, and those involved in related activities understand procedures for handling and using biodiesel fuels.

“This guide is an important tool for the industry as we see biodiesel volumes in the marketplace continue to grow,” said Scott Fenwick, technical director at the National Biodiesel Board. “More Americans are using biodiesel than ever before, and reliable, accurate information is critical for the fuel supply chain all the way down to end users.”

The guide is prepared by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. A full copy of the guide can be downloaded here or by visiting cleancities.energy.gov/publications.

Made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as soybean oil, recycled cooking oil, and animal fats, biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning diesel replacement that can be used in existing diesel engines. It is the first and only commercial-scale fuel produced across the U.S. to meet the EPA’s definition as an advanced biofuel—meaning the EPA has determined that biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent when compared with petroleum diesel. Americans used nearly 2.1 billion gallons of biodiesel last year.

The National Biodiesel Board is the U.S. trade association representing the biodiesel and renewable diesel industries, including producers, feedstock suppliers and fuel distributors.