US biodiesel production for July up 7% from June

U.S. biodiesel production reached 162 million gallons in July, up 11 million gallons from June, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The increase represents a 7 percent uptick in domestic biodiesel manufacturing.

Midwestern production of biodiesel accounted for 72 percent of the U.S. total. Eighty-eight biodiesel plants with a total annual productive capacity of 2.5 billion gallons were responsible for the July volumes, according to EIA.

Producer sales of biodiesel in July included 69 million gallons sold as B100 and another 98 million gallons of B100 sold in blends with petroleum diesel fuel.

More than 1.2 billion pounds of feedstocks were consumed for U.S. biodiesel production in July, including 775 million pounds of soybean oil (nearly 63 percent); 133 million pounds of distillers corn oil (nearly 11 percent); 54 million pounds of tallow (more than 4 percent); 55 million pounds of white grease (nearly 4.5 percent); and 82 million pounds of yellow grease (6.6 percent).

Tallow use for domestic biodiesel manufacturing in July nearly tripled since June and more than quadrupled since May. Yellow grease consumption in July reached its highest monthly usage for biodiesel manufacturing since March.