Milestone in US biodiesel, renewable diesel industry vision highlighted on National Biodiesel Day

National Biodiesel Day takes place March 18, in honor of Rudolf Diesel’s birthday. In the 1890s, Diesel invented the compression-ignition (diesel) engine, which was designed to run on peanut oil. He knew early on the prominent role renewable plant oils could play in fueling the future’s better, cleaner vehicles.

With this thought of innovation in mind, the National Biodiesel Board unveiled in January 2020 a new industry vision, a plan to grow to more than 6 billion gallons by the year 2030, and, with advancements in feedstocks, 15 billion gallons by 2050.

Today, the operating capacity for the industry stands at more than 3 billion gallons, meeting half of NBB’s vision goal ahead of schedule. Announced expansions and new projects could potentially add more than 3 billion gallons of capacity as early as 2023.

“To see a concept like Rudolf Diesel’s get us to a 3 billion-gallon industry is remarkable,” said Donnell Rehagen, NBB CEO. “Our industry has seen its challenges, but for nearly 30 years into commercial biodiesel production, our association never took ‘no’ for an answer. With a mindset like Diesel’s and a better, cleaner product like biodiesel, we are well on our way to meeting our 6 billion-gallon goal.”

To find out more about the industry vision, visit the National Biodiesel Board’s association website.

Made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil, soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel and renewable diesel are better, cleaner fuels that are available now for use in existing diesel engines without modification. NBB is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel and renewable diesel value chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers and fuel distributors.