Iowa's ethanol and biodiesel producers made record volumes of the biofuels in 2016 thanks to rising blending mandates, according to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
The state produced 4.1 billion gallons of ethanol and 297 million gallons of biodiesel, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said in statements Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Both figures were up from 2015's 4 billion gallons of ethanol and 242 million gallons of biodiesel.
The federal Renewable Fuels Standard requires obligated parties, mostly refiners who produce transportation fuels, to make sure renewable fuels are blended into the conventional fuel pool.
In 2016, those obligated parties have been required to blend 14.5 billion gallons of ethanol and 1.9 billion gallons of biodiesel. In 2017, those volumes will rise to 15 billion gallons and 2 billion gallons, respectively.
Every gallon of biofuel produced in the US generates a Renewable Identification Number that is used to demonstrated blending compliance to the Environmental Protection Agency at the end of the year.
Biodiesel RINs can be used to comply with the advanced and conventional ethanol mandates. That has made biodiesel production mare attractive over 2016 as a shortage of advanced biofuel RINs has prompted market participants to look toward biodiesel as an answer.
