Of the 978 million pounds of feedstocks used to produce biodiesel in July, 49.07% of product was soybean oil, a 3.74 percentage point drop from June, the US Energy Information data reported Friday.
Soybean oil remained the largest biodiesel feedstock, with 480 million lbs consumed, but the share slipped for the fourth time in the last five months, the EIA said in its latest monthly biodiesel production report.
The next three largest biodiesel feedstocks were corn oil (108 million lbs), yellow grease (97 million lbs), alcohol (90 million lbs) and tallow (45 million lbs), according to the EIA.
Market sources have described 2013 as a breakout year for corn oil use as a biodiesel feedstock, the EIA said. Corn oil made up 11.04% of biodiesel feedstocks, a significant gain from July 2012, when it was the sixth-largest feedstock at 5.84% of production.
Monthly production of biodiesel edged up 15 million gallons to 128 million gallons, with 64% of production coming from the Midwest region, down from 70% in June, the EIA said.
Producer sales of biodiesel during July included 87 million gallons sold as B100 (100% biodiesel) and an additional 40 million gallons of B100 sold in biodiesel blends with diesel fuel derived from petroleum, the EIA said.
Production came from 110 biodiesel plants -- down six plants from May -- with annual production capacity of 2.1 billion gal/year, according to the EIA.
