Iowa currently has eight biodiesel refineries in operation with an annual production capacity of nearly 115 million gallons. In addition, there are six new plants and one major expansion under construction that will add over 200 million gallons of annual capacity. Several more projects are under development. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association was formed in 2002 to represent the state’s ethanol and biodiesel producers. The trade group fosters the development and growth of the renewable fuels industry in Iowa through education, promotion, legislation and infrastructure development. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association is working to correct myths and unscientific attacks on the renewable fuels industry. This compilation of issues, responses and resources was put together to aid the public in separating fact from fiction.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) today announced that Iowa biodiesel refineries will produce a record 60 million gallons in 2006. This production represents a 240% increase over the 25 million gallons produced by Iowa biodiesel refineries in 2005. In producing the record amount of biodiesel, Iowa’s biodiesel refineries processed the oil from over 40 million bushels soybeans. According to a release from the Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa has 14 biodiesel plants with total production capacity of 317.5 million gallons of biodiesel annually. Two additional plants are under construction in Iowa which will have the combined capacity to produce an additional 35 million gallons. Biodiesel production and demand is growing exponentially and Iowa is leading the way according to Monte Shaw, IRFA Executive Director. Consider that last year the entire country produced only 75 million gallons of biodiesel and this year U.S. biodiesel production is estimated between 200 and 250 million gallons. Iowa farmers and entrepreneurs are leading the way in production and quality.

1853-1976
Long before the advent of diesel engine, studies on conversion of vegetable oil into biodiesel were conducted in 1853 by the two scientists Duffy and Patrick. It was only on August 10, 1893 that Rudolf Diesel ran the first diesel engine at Augsburg, Germany and the day is still commemorated as the “International Biodiesel Day” every year in honor of that landmark event. In 1900 at the World Fair in Paris, Otto Company of France demonstrated a diesel engine that ran on peanut oil devised by Rudolf Diesel which was a pioneering effort in the development of biodiesel although strictly speaking it was not exactly biodiesel but biofuel since transesterification, the process for converting vegetable oil into biodiesel was unknown at that time. Rudolf Diesel being a visionary realized the important role the fuel made from biomass was going to play in future for running engines. However the makers of biofuel from vegetable oil were finding the process expensive and the petroleum industry took this opportunity to aggressively market petroleum diesel which was cheaper. Petroleum oil compared to vegetable oil was found to be less gelling and the diesel engines were modified accordingly by the manufacturers during the twenties to enable use of petroleum diesel. Biomass fuels like biodiesel as a result got shelved for many years and the manufacturing facilities fell into decay. In spite of this slump, the IC engines continued to use vegetable oil as fuel during the period from the twenties and up to the fifties in countries like the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, China and Japan. The first production of actual biodiesel was by Chavanne, a scientist at the University of Brussels in Belgium who got a patent for it in 1937. This patent was for the process of transesterification or alcoholysis by which vegetable oil was converted for use as fuel. The process involved treating vegetable oils with ethanol and methanol to replace glycerol with alcohol after separating fatty acid from the glycerol. This production process continued till the mid seventies.

1977-1989
A modified process of transesterification to produce biodiesel using ethanol was patented in 1977 by Parente, a Brazilian scientist. This process has since been recognized and accepted by the automobile industry as the standardized one for making biodiesel internationally. Another product ‘bio-kerosene’ by Tecbio owned by Parente has also been patented and certified by Boeing and NASA for use as aviation biodiesel. In 1979 a process was developed in South Africa whereby sunflower oil was converted to biodiesel by the process of transesterification. However it was not before 1983 that biodiesel suitable for use in automobile engine was produced, tested and accepted worldwide. The first plant using rapeseed oil to produce biodiesel at industrial scale was set up in 1989 by the Austrian firm Gaskoks.

1990-Present
Biodiesel plants started to be set up in many European countries from the early nineties. Continuous researches are being conducted to increase the proportion of the fuel up to 50% in combination with petroleum diesel. Service stations in Europe are selling 100% biodiesel. Minnesota in 2005 became the first state in the USA to stipulate minimum 2% biodiesel to be mixed in diesel fuel.

More articles:
Biodiesel Fundamentals – Biodiesel: Applications & Uses