Biodiesel Magazine presents its annual roundup of proposed plants from across the United States and Canada. This year's list includes 26 plants somewhere between concept and construction. This number is lower than in past years, reiterating a slowdown in projected growth but also confirming continued interest in the industry's potential.

Paying a Premium

By Ron Kotrba

Oil prices of $140 a barrel will naturally apply significant upward pressure on all transportation fuels, but diesel prices have ballooned relative to gasoline in recent times. High global demand and slow-to-catch-up diesel refining capacity are largely to blame, so what's being done about it?

Proving the Collocation Concept

By Kris Bevill

Biodiesel producers are on the lookout for low-cost feedstocks and the means to process those feedstocks as the cost of soy oil remains out of reach for many operations. This isn't stopping a group in north-central Missouri, who may have a solution to tight profit margins. Producer's Choice Soy Energy plans to build and operate a soybean crushing facility next to a biodiesel plant.

Plantation-Scale Oil Production

By Susanne Retka Schill / Story & Photos

Some aspects of palm oil production parallel American soybean production practices, but many others reveal a radically different system.

To avoid high-priced virgin vegetable oils, many in the industry are looking for alternatives. But inexpensive feedstocks are cheap for a reason-they carry high levels of undesirable components such as free fatty acids that make it difficult to produce biodiesel. Pretreatment systems, however, can clean up less than desirable feedstocks and improve producers' bottom lines.