US production of biodiesel rose 13 million gallons or 10.8% to 133 million gallons in May, with 66% of that total coming from the Midwest region, down 3 percentage points from April, US Energy Information Administration data released Friday show. May 2015's output was 116 million gallons.
Of the 969 million lb of feedstocks used to produce biodiesel in May, 56.14% was soybean oil, up more than 7 percentage points compared with April, the EIA said.
Soybean oil remained the largest biodiesel feedstock, with 527 million lb consumed, the EIA said in its latest monthly biodiesel production report, compared with 415 million lb in April. Some 443 million lb of soybean oil was used as a feedstock for biodiesel production in May 2015.
The next three largest biodiesel feedstocks were canola grease (119 million lb), yellow grease (106 million lb), and corn oil (81 million lb), according to the EIA.
Producer sales of biodiesel in May comprised 65 million gallons sold as B100 (100% biodiesel) and an additional 68 million gallons of B100 sold in biodiesel blends with diesel fuel derived from petroleum, the EIA said.
Production came from 94 biodiesel plants with an annual production capacity of 2.1 billion gal/year, according to the EIA.