National Biodiesel Day takes place March 18, in honor of Rudolf Diesel’s birthday. In the 1890s, Rudolf invented the diesel engine, which was designed to run on peanut oil. Rudolf knew early on the prominent role renewable plant oils could play in fueling the future’s better, cleaner vehicles.

With this thought of innovation in mind, the National Biodiesel Board unveiled a new industry vision, a plan to grow to over 6 billion gallons by the year 2030, and, with advancements in feedstocks, 15 billion gallons by 2050.

Today, the operating capacity for the industry stands at more than 3 billion gallons, meeting half of NBB’s vision goal ahead of schedule. Announced expansions and new projects could potentially add over 3 billion gallons of capacity as early as 2023.

“To see a concept like Rudolf Diesel’s get us to a 3-billion-gallon industry is remarkable,” National Biodiesel Board CEO Donnell Rehagen said. “Our industry has seen its challenges, but for nearly 30 years into commercial biodiesel production, our association never took no for answer. With a mindset like Diesel’s and a better, cleaner product like biodiesel, we are well on our way to meeting our 6-billion-gallon goal.”

To find out more about the industry vision, please visit the National Biodiesel Board’s association website.

Made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil, soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel and renewable diesel are better, cleaner fuels that are available now for use in existing diesel engines without modification. NBB is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel and renewable diesel value chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers, and fuel distributors.