Where will all the biodiesel come from?

Where will all the biodiesel come from?

11 January 2006

Just last week I mentioned how biodiesel was fast becoming commonplace and our attention would soon turn to where all of this biodiesel we were going to use would come from. Biodiesel, in a very short span of time, has turned from a curiousity into a booming trend and now all of those backyard biodiesel producers are finding themselves competing with the big guys for supplies of the feedstock. Sure, you can recycle your own used cooking oil but if you drive very much you’ll need a bit more than leftovers from the kitchen but local restaurants will be using their own oil or selling it to companies using it to make larger quantities for sale.

Minnesota, the state producing the most biodiesel at the present time with a 2 percent biodiesel mandate, needs 18 million gallons per year, the entire nation produces 180 million gallons so Minnesota alone uses 10 percent of the U.S. biodiesel production at only a 2 percent mandated level. More production facilities are coming online but what will they make biodiesel from?

Much of the same oil used for biodiesel is currently exported so a competition for that oil would likely push up the price a bit but even if all of it were kept in the U.S., all of the canola oil for instance is 85 million gallons, soybean oil, 195 million gallons and rendered animal fats, 400 million gallons. Add those up and then compare that to the 2.5 billion gallons necessary if we went to a 5 percent biodiesel blend. B20? No way.

An article yesterday notes we will need to look at everything from a better reuse and recycling system for the oil from restaurants to corn and cottonseed oil to organic materials from the poultry industry. It’s the raw material to make biodiesel that’s in short supply and mandating a higher biodiesel blend at the pump can’t change that.

Agri News

Posted in Biodiesel, Biodiesel Legislation