Biofuels Bulletin By Tina Caparella Biodiesel Gets Chunk of $60 Million USDA Monies sewer plants. The plants charge a higher fee to dispose of it because it takes more energy to treat. Pacific Biodiesel wants to recycle the grease trap water, which is better for the environment, increase the company’s profit margin, and reduce grease trap service fees. The technology UH Manoa researchers from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute are developing may end up having a global impact on the wastewater industry. UH developed a high-rate anaerobic digestion system that uses bio-char to treat the wastewater onsite while creating methane. After successful lab experiments, a test-scale system was built and installed at Pacific Biodiesel’s Oahu facility. Normally, university researchers do all of their work in a lab and are not involved when it’s applied to a real-world situation. In this partnership, UH researchers and the people who will actually use the technology are working together to solve problems as they come up. US Biodiesel Imports Set Record Biodiesel imports in the United States (US) reached 1.1 million metric tons (302 million gallons) in 2013, a tenfold increase compared with 2012 levels, according to the US Census Bureau. Imports soared following the reinstatement of a $1 per gallon tax credit in 2013, which turned imports into a profitable business for blenders. The volume surged in November and December as players sought to beat an expiration deadline of December 31, 2013. December saw a monthly record of 257,575 metric tons that was powered by imports from Argentina, which totaled 130,856 metric tons after 139,138 metric tons were imported in November. US imports from Argentina in 2013 totaled 441,772 metric tons, representing almost 40 percent of American imports. Argentina has been looking for new export outlets for its biodiesel following the European Commission’s decision to implement provisional anti-dumping duties in May 2013. However, there have been no Argentine biodiesel exports to the United States since the start of 2014 as the incentive for such shipments stopped with the expiration of the tax credit at the end of 2013. To be eligible to generate renewable identification numbers (RINs), credits that can be used to meet federal mandates for renewable fuel sold in the United States, importers must register with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and receive its approval. Producers in Argentina tell Platts they have requested EPA registration for the generation of RINs, but are still waiting for approval. Indonesia was the second largest source of US biodiesel imports in 2013 at 237,032 metric tons, or around 20 percent of the annual total. Several producers from Indonesia that Continued on page 61 The United States Department of Agriculture recently made nearly $60 million in payments to 195 producers to support the production of advanced biofuel. Eleven of the payments were more than $1 million with all but one going to biodiesel production. The total amount of the 10 seven-figure payments to biodiesel producers was roughly $40 million and distributed as follows. • Deerfield Energy, LLC in Missouri, $5.8 million • RBF Port Neches, LLC in Texas, $5.6 million • Mid-America Biofuels, LLC in Missouri, $5.4 million • High Plains Bioenergy, LLC in Oklahoma, $4.2 million • Paseo Cargill Energy, LLC in Missouri, $4.1 million • Ag Processing, Inc. in Nebraska, $3.8 million • Louis Dreyfus Agricultural Industries in Indiana, $3.7 million • Lake Erie Biofuels, LLC in Pennsylvania, $2.7 million • Crimson Renewable Energy, LP in California, $2.6 million • American Biodiesel, Inc. (also known as Community Fuels), $1.5 million Other big payouts went to Renewable Energy Group in Iowa, $488,475; Imperial Western Products, Inc. in California, $456,777; and Sequential-Pacific Biodiesel in Oregon, $379,678. Renderer Griffin Industries, Inc. in Kentucky is receiving $180,627 for its biodiesel production. The funding is provided through the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program, which was established in the 2008 Farm Bill and reauthorized in the recently signed 2014 Farm Bill. Under this program, payments are made to eligible producers based on the amount of advanced biofuels produced from renewable biomass other than corn kernel starch, such as crop residue, vegetable oil, animal fat, and animal, food, and yard waste. More than 300 producers in 47 states have received $279 million in payments since the program’s inception. It has supported the production of more than four billion gallons of advanced biofuel and the equivalent of more than 40 billion kilowatt hours of electric energy. Researchers Partner in Grease Trap Water Recycling Researchers from the University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa are working with Maui-based Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, LLC to develop a way to make water from restaurant grease traps reusable. The collaboration is an example of a new type of partnership between local businesses and Hawaii’s public university. Without grease traps, wastewater from dishwashing and cleaning kitchens in restaurants could clog sewer lines because of the oils it contains. Restaurants are required to have grease traps to prevent this from happening and hire companies like Pacific Biodiesel to remove and transport that wastewater to 52 April 2014 Render www.rendermagazine.com
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