EPA data says biodiesel production still rising

July 6, 2011

BY Ron Kotrba

The U.S. Census Bureau’s May numbers for fats and oils used in biodiesel refining are out, and the spike seen over the past few months seems to have leveled off—according to these numbers. However, the U.S. EPA’s EMTS (moderated tracking system) informational data, which many in the industry use more so than the Census Bureau data, suggest otherwise.

The Census Bureau’s methyl ester numbers for May come in at 58.45 million gallons, down slightly from April’s 60.2 million gallons. The EPA’s EMTS data shows that in May, 82.29 million gallons of biomass-based diesel (including biodiesel and nonester renewable diesels) were produced. The nonester biomass-based diesel portion of that number, however, is very small.

To highlight the difference in these numbers, January through May Census Bureau numbers tally up to 225.64 million gallons of methyl ester biodiesel production whereas EPA’s EMTS data from the same time period show the volume of biodiesel produced was 297.4 million gallons. Total biomass-based diesel production according to EMTS data during that time period was 307 million gallons, so only about 9.6 million gallons of nonester renewable diesel has been produced under the RFS2 system this year.

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By the time June numbers come out, the U.S. industry will have already surpassed its biodiesel production volume for all of last year. 

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