Posted on 03/22/2015 7:12:27 AM PDT by thackney
After reaching record levels in 2013, United States imports of biomass-based diesel fuel (both biodiesel and renewable diesel) fell 36%, to 333 million gallons in 2014. Uncertainty surrounding future Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) targets and the absence of a late-year influx of volumes from Argentina were two main factors in this decline.
The strongest drivers of the resurgence in U.S. biomass-based diesel demand since 2012 have been increasing RFS targets and the on-again, off-again biodiesel tax credit. Biodiesel and renewable diesel are valuable because they qualify for the two major renewable fuel programs in the United States: the RFS applied at the national level, and California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Biomass-based diesel fuels have additional advantages over other renewable fuels because of their relatively high energy content and low carbon intensity, which allow them to qualify for higher credit values in both renewable fuel programs.
Both biodiesel and renewable diesel fuels are produced from refining vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel is blended with petroleum diesel up to 5% or 20% by volume (referred to as B5 and B20, respectively). Renewable diesel is a diesel-like fuel that meets specifications for use in existing infrastructure and diesel engines, and thus is not subject to any blending limitations.
While the RFS is meant to encourage the production and consumption of renewable fuels, obligations for 2014 still have not been finalized and those for 2015 have not yet been proposed. The initial proposal for the 2014 RFS program year, released in November 2013, stated that the 2014 biomass-based diesel obligation would remain unchanged from its 2013 value at 1.28 billion gallons, while the advanced biofuels obligation would be reduced to 2.2 billion gallons, down from 2.75 billion gallons in 2013. The uncertainty and proposed lower target levels have made it difficult for refiners to comply with the RFS recently, but the flexibility and value of biomass-based diesel volumes towards all obligation levels make it a strong driver of biodiesel consumption as long as the RFS is still active.
Two other factors help explain lower biomass-based diesel imports in 2014. In late 2013, there was a surge of biodiesel imports from Argentina as a result of European Union (EU) antidumping duties placed on Argentine biodiesel. This action by the EU temporarily diverted large volumes of Argentine biomass-based diesel that were previously destined to be exported to Europe, Argentina's largest biodiesel export market, to the United States. U.S. imports of biodiesel from Argentina fell by 57% from 2013 to 52 million gallons in 2014.
Another factor was the expiration of the $1.00 per gallon biodiesel tax credit at the end of 2013. While the credit was retroactively restored at the end of 2014, the extent to which producers considered this outcome in making decisions during 2014 remains unknown. Still, relatively high diesel fuel prices for much of 2014 kept domestic biodiesel relatively economic to blend, supporting production at levels near those in 2013. Domestic biomass-based diesel production was sufficient to meet most of the proposed reduced RFS obligations in 2014, thus reducing the need for imports. Total imports of biodiesel and renewable diesel represented an average of 23% of domestic biomass-based diesel consumption in 2014, down from an average of 34% of consumption in 2013.
The 212 million gallons of biodiesel imported into the United States in 2014 was sourced primarily from Canada (47%), reclaiming its spot as the top U.S. supplier after being surpassed by Argentina in 2013. The remaining volumes of regular biodiesel imports entered the United States primarily on the East Coast, mostly from Indonesia and Argentina. U.S. renewable diesel imports reached 121 million gallons in 2013, down 42% from 2013. Slightly more than 92% of total U.S. renewable diesel imports came from Singapore and entered the United States primarily through West Coast ports, likely destined for California LCFS compliance.
Who needs this crap when oil is as cheap as it is now?
The EPA thinks we do.
Well you learn something every day. I would have bet my Soc Sec deposit that statement was false on a T/F test.
“Who needs this crap when oil is as cheap as it is now?”
If government has the power to do something, anything, it will create an infrastructure of government workers and do that thing. This enables them to receive lobby dollars and distribute money as they please. It’s about power. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “politics is all about who gets how much and when.”
The only way to stop this is to get rid of the agencies involved. But, as Reagan pointed out, there is nothing so close to immortality as a government program.
I do not understand the need to import this stuff at all. Don’t we have plenty of sources of materials with which to make our own biodiesel?
How much of the diesel market does biodiesel support, anyway?
Ping to you.
World’s Largest Biodiesel Plant Opens in Singapore
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/archive/worlds-largest-biodiesel-plant-opens-in-singapore/
Mar 09, 2011
Besides palm oil, the plant also uses by-products of palm oil production from Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as waste animal fat from Australia and New Zealand, to produce its renewable diesel, which Neste Oil claims is the cleanest diesel fuel on the market today.
It is being sold in Europe and North America, where governments have adopted biofuel mandates, under which sellers of transportation fuel have to ensure that part of the fuel they sell is biodiesel.
It’s mandated in California as part of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
I don’t know how the actual percentages/amounts come out, but this is done to satisfy state law.
Same reason Tesla is able to make money selling “credits” to companies that don’t have electric cars to peddle in Cali.
The way to encourage new technology and innovation is to get government the hell out of the way, not by imposing stupid mandates on consumption. You don’t see government mandate forcing people to buy smartphones do you?
Thanks!
So Singapore is the “Tesla” of biodiesel!
Cost. It comes down to palm oil transported from across the pacific is competitive with local production from other sources.
The 2014 biomass-based diesel obligation would remain unchanged from its 2013 value at 1.28 billion gallons.
Our Distillate demand, which includes heating fuel oil as well as diesel, is about 4 million barrels a day or over 60 billion gallons a year.
4-Week Avg U.S. Product Supplied of Distillate Fuel Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WDIUPUS2&f=4
It is mandated by the feds for all of the US as well.
Oh Hallelujah!
Singapore Uber Alles!
(thanks for the great info, as always)
330 million GALLONS? That is spit in the ocean.
The world’s biggest biodiesel producers
http://www.statista.com/statistics/271472/biodiesel-production-in-selected-countries/
Well, somewhat understandable because retail price at the pump has diesel much higher than gasoline. And bio/renewed diesel is sold for the dame price per gallon as the newly made refined stuff. The only way to really save with biodiesel is to make it yourself, and that involves a lot of work. And time/work=money...
More people would drive diesel cars if the price at the pump went down, and the price at the pump would go down if production could match the increase in diesel engines... I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Well you learn something every day. I would have bet my Soc Sec deposit that statement was false on a T/F test.
I think that it is the Palm Oil where forests are being cleared all over South East Asia to grow palm oil
Singapore is the regional financial center so export company offices are located there,
Here's what a palm oil plantation looks like ..(another dio-diversity disaster promoted by the greenies)
In its annual Human Development Report released yesterday, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) highlighted the untenable environmental impacts of palm oil production. As a supposedly environmentally-friendly biofuel and healthier food ingredient, the demand for palm oil has risen steadily in recent years and can be found anywhere from cookies to cosmetics — yet, as we've shown on TH before (again and again), it is becoming clear that palm oil comes with a pretty heavy ecological cost.
"Expansion of cultivation of (oil palm) in East Asia has been associated with widespread deforestation and violation of human rights of indigenous people," states the report, which singles out top producers Indonesia and Malaysia as countries where - in addition to deforestation and indigenous conflicts - palm oil production has also resulted in the destruction of key habitats of endangered primates.
Interesting, thanks!
Not satisfied with whacking birds out of the sky with windmill blades in the US, environmentalists now mandate clear cutting forests in Asia.
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