The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has published the first edition of its monthly biofuels capacity and feedstocks update, Biodiesel magazine reported on 31 March.
As of January, more than 77.32bn litres (20.43bn gallons) of operable US biofuel production capacity was recorded with more than 11.18bn kg (24.65bn pounds) of feedstock used in biofuel production, according to the report.
The biofuel production capacity reported for the month included 65.6bn litres (17.3bn gallons) of fuel alcohol capacity, 8.7bn litres (2.3bn gallons) of biodiesel capacity, and 2.9M litres (791M gallons) of capacity for other biofuels. The category of other biofuels included renewable diesel, renewable heating oil, renewable jet fuel, renewable naphtha, renewable gasoline and other renewable fuels, Biodiesel magazine wrote.
According to the EIA, corn was the most widely used biofuel feedstock in January at 10.5bn kilos (23.237bn pounds), followed by soyabean oil at 309M kilos (683M pounds), yellow grease at 119M kilos (263M pounds), corn oil at 96M kilos (213M pounds), tallow at 38M kilos (84M pounds), white grease at 24M kilos (53M pounds), and poultry fat at 15M kilos (34M pounds). An additional 38M kilos (84M pounds) of feedstock categorised as “other” feedstocks went into to biofuel production in January. Data for garden and food waste, canola oil and grain sorghum feedstocks were withheld to avoid disclosure of individual company data.
The EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly report, also released on 31 March, showed that refinery and blender net inputs of total renewable fuels stood at 25.5M barrels in January. This figure included 23.8M barrels of fuel ethanol, 1.5M barrels of renewable diesel and biodiesel fuel, and 127,000 barrels of other renewable fuels.
EIA data indicated that no fuel ethanol was imported into the USA during January. However, the USA had imported 228,000 barrels of biomass-based diesel and 771,000 barrels of other renewable diesel during the month, Biodiesel reported.
US stocks of fuel ethanol were at 26M barrels in January, with stocks of renewable diesel and biodiesel at 6.3M barrels and stocks of other biofuels at 136,000 barrels, according to the report.