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Feds examine biodiesel usage

A federal report suggests Congress should consider requiring a strategy to measure all stages of biodiesel production and if a tax credit should be revised.

The investigative arm of Congress, the General Accountability Office, recently released a biodiesel report. In 2007, Congress expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard, requiring increasing use of ethanol and other biofuels, from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022.

The GAO indicated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should develop a strategy to assess lifecycle (cultivation, harvest, transport, conversion, storage, and use) environmental effects of increased biofuels production.

The agency reported that many experts said biofuels production has contributed to increases in crop prices, livestock and poultry feed and, to a lesser extent, food. This trend may continue as the RFS expands.

For the environment, many experts believe that increased biofuels production could impair water quality, reduce water availability, degrade air and soil quality, and hurt wildlife habitat. But the extent of these effects is uncertain and could be mitigated.

Federal agencies should make research a priority on future blend wall issues, experts said. U.S. ethanol use is nearing the blend wall, or the amount of ethanol most vehicles can use, given the EPA’s 10 percent limit on the ethanol gas content.

Ethanol is highly corrosive and can damage pipelines, tanker trucks, underground storage tanks and above-ground storage tanks, which could in turn lead to releases into the environment that may also contaminate groundwater, according to the report.

Biodiesel, like ethanol, cannot be blended at oil refineries and transported through product pipelines because of contamination concerns. Biodiesel is transported by railroad cars and tanker trucks to fueling stations, which are expensive and slower than using pipeline and add to product cost.

But further R&D on biorefinery processing technologies might lead to price-competitive biofuels compatible with the existing petroleum distribution and storage infrastructure and current U.S. vehicles.

The federal agencies involved in biodiesel oversight generally agreed with the recommendations.

The complete report is available here .
   
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