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www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | NOVEMBER 2016 29 STATUS OF THE BIODIESEL INDUSTRY Sales of pure biodiesel in the U.S. exceeded two billion gallons in 2015, Steve Howell told attendees of his presentation "Status of the Biodiesel Industry" at the NORA Technical workshop, held in Newport, R.I. "A lot of people don't realize that the industry has already grown to the point where we're selling over two billion gal- lons of B100," used mostly in blend with on- and off-road diesel fuel or heating oil in the United States, said Howell, a partner in MARK-IV Consulting, Kearney, Mo., and chair of ASTM International's biodiesel task force. ASTM is an organization that functions as an open forum for the develop- ment of international standards. Howell said that installed production capacity in the U.S.— "plants already built that could produce biodiesel tomorrow"—is over three-and-a-half billion gallons. "Our goal as an industry is to reach sales of four billion gallons of pure biodiesel—B100—by 2022," Howell said in an interview. "We're planning to essentially double our industry volume," said Howell, who is also senior technical advisor to the National Biodiesel Board. The Board has nearly 200 member companies, and represents the biodiesel and renewable diesel industry. The U.S. uses somewhere between four and seven billion gallons of heating oil each year depending on the severity of weather and the fluctuation of prices, Howell noted. "We've been growing the biodiesel industry nice and slow and doing what we need to do to make sure people don't have any issues or problems," Howell said. "We're going to be a pretty substantial player in the fuels business by 2022." How much of the current output of pure biodiesel is used in heat- ing oil and how much in diesel fuel isn't known, because the Energy Information Administration "doesn't track that," Howell said. Part of Howell's presentation at the NORA Tech Workshop covered the results of a standard test designed to evaluate the effects of longer-term storage on biodiesel. The fuel is stored at 43 degrees Celsius; each week at that temperature corresponds, approximately, to one month of normal or typical storage, Howell said. Results showed that the fuel could be stored for up to three years without forming "any deleterious products of aging," Howell said. In 2015, after seven years of work, ASTM established a stan- dard for B6 through B20. Now it is working on a standard for B21 through B100. "Doing all the technical work that's necessary is going to take us several years," Howell said. Howell noted that Lambert Lucks of IWO, the Institute for Heating and Oil Technology in Germany, told attendees that Germany is aiming for an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. "That's where the policy is going, as far as burning liquid fuels in Germany," Howell said. Here in the U.S. the approach is practically the reverse, he noted. "Our approach here is [for biodiesel] to be 50 percent of the market by 2030. Potentially 100 percent of the mar- ket by 2050," he said. That requires starting now on making sure burners "work fine," and ensuring that enough oils and fat will be available on the market, Howell said. NORA's focus on renewable fuels helped it win reauthorization from Congress, Howell said. "We're going to transform this industry from the existing fuels NORA TECHNICAL WORKSHOP Industry professionals, including representatives of the heating oil industry in Europe, exchange information about the latest developments in fuels and technology A technical workshop hosted by the National Oilheat Research Alliance, led by its president, John Huber, featured a program devised by Dr. Thomas Butcher, NORA's director of research. Presenters discussed topics in four categories: Advanced Burner Concepts; Ultra-Low Sulfur Heating Oil and Premium Fuels; Biofuels; and Advanced Equipment. Below are some selected highlights. By Stephen Bennett