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Renewable diesel boom leveling out

The director of economics for Clean Fuels Alliance America says the renewable diesel boom is projected to level out this year.

Jonathan Martin tells Brownfield production and use of renewable diesel has skyrocketed since 2020.

“There’s a lot of reasons for that, but mostly oil refiners are moving their processing capabilities over to renewable diesel to keep them operational due to Covid shutting down so many of those facilities,” he says.

In fact, he says 2024 was a record year for both renewable diesel and biodiesel.

“About 5.1 billion gallons consumed in the US, much larger than anybody was projecting,” he says.

However, Martin says unless the Environmental Protection Agency changes its renewable fuels obligations, the market has reached its peak.

“The RVO’s basically set the market.”  He says, “They set the demand for the market.  The reason why biodiesel and renewable diesel have been able to go beyond their current RVO limits is because, unfortunately, ethanol hasn’t been able to meet their total number. And so that leaves room for biodiesel.”

Currently 50% of all U.S. soybean oil finds its way into renewable fuels, and Martin says there’s plenty of capacity for industry expansion should adjustments of the obligations take place.

Martin spoke with Brownfield at the 2025 Clean Fuels Conference in San Diego, California,

AUDIO: Jonathan Martin – Clean Fuels Alliance America

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