91ÊÓƵ

The amount of biodiesel and biofuels in the U.S. transportation fuel mix will increase again in 2012, but the amount of cellulosic biofuel, which is made from non-edible plant materials, falls short of original projections.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized the percentage of renewable fuels that all gasoline and diesel refiners and importers will have to blend into their products in 2012. As part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the EPA sets fuel standards that steadily increase each year in order to meet a target of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.

The 2012 standards for biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuels are in line with the EPA’s original projections, but a lack of commercial biorefineries for cellulosic fuel contributed to the agency lowering its projection in that category.

Oregon will provide a bit of a boost to the fledgling industry, however. Colorado-based in 2010 broke ground on a 250,000 gallon-per-year biorefinery in Boardman, expected to come online this year. Once the demonstration plant is up and running, the company plans to build another facility across the street that will produce up to 25 million gallons per year. The commercial-scale plant is expected to come online in three years.

But the 2012 standard for cellulosic biofuels, at 8.65 million gallons, is drastically below the 500 million gallons originally planned for 2012. Still, the new target is 2.65 million gallons over the 2011 mandate.

The total volume of renewable fuel proposed for 2012 is 15.2 billion gallons, up from roughly 14 billion gallons in 2011.