by Tom Bryan (Biodiesel Magazine) Biodiesel Magazine’s late-2020 survey of producers tells the story of a resilient, changing industry that’s taken mostly indirect hits from the pandemic. Many producers lowered, but later ramped back up, production in 2020.
This publication’s survey of U.S. biomass-based diesel producers, conducted in early December, captured responses from qualified personnel at about one-fifth of the industry’s operational facilities. While the number of plants represented in the survey offers a limited picture of the industry and its fleet of 100-plus plants, the sample includes both biodiesel and renewable diesel facilities. In fact, 19% of survey respondents specified some form of involvement with renewable diesel production in 2020, including one facility that produces both renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Every respondent was either a biodiesel producer exclusively, or a producer of both biodiesel and renewable diesel/SAF.