EPA Issues Warning to Biodiesel Producers

By Sean M. McNally, Senior Reporter

This story appears in the Nov. 12 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning to biodiesel producers they could face fines of up to $32,500 a day if their product does not meet quality standards.

In a guidance document sent to producers and blenders last late month, EPA said it plans to increase enforcement to ensure that biodiesel producers are complying with quality and technical standards set by ASTM International.

EPA said that “any biodiesel that does not meet the version of ASTM D 6751 in effect at the time of registration will be considered an unregistered fuel subject to . . . civil penalties of up to $32,500 per day, per violation.”

For example, the ASTM standards set the flash point for biodiesel at 199.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and limits glycerin content to 0.24% of the total volume.

Jenna Higgins, a spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board, said the industry group worked with EPA on the guidance document, which was part of a larger industry outreach program to raise awareness about biodiesel quality.

The group also has “been working with state and federal agencies to request that they engage in fuel quality enforcement. That level of enforcement is something our own members — many of them fuel suppliers — asked us to do.  That should give you an idea of how serious our industry is about quality,” she said.

Richard Moskowitz, regulatory counsel for American Trucking Associations, said the federation had asked EPA to address the quality issue “following reports that a significant number of producers were failing to produce biodiesel that meets the ASTM quality specifications.”

While the advisory was a good step, ATA wants EPA to do more to address the quality of biodiesel, Moskowitz said.

“It’s our position that the government needs to be more aggressive in its inspection and enforcement efforts in order to protect trucking companies from problems caused by off-spec biodiesel,” he said. “We would like the EPA to initiate enforcement proceedings against biodiesel producers and resellers that fail to meet the legally required quality specifications.”

Higgins said NBB was supportive of increased enforcement and the use of fines.
“We absolutely encourage fuel-quality enforcement, including fines if necessary,” she said. “It would be to the detriment of our industry to wait for the market to sort out the bad actors.”

In its advisory, EPA also said consumers should buy biodiesel only from a reputable dealer.

“Improperly processed biodiesel may contain unreacted or partially reacted oils or fats — measured by the total glycerin — which can cause the fuel to gel at higher than expected temperatures,” the agency said.

Moskowitz also said that cold temperatures could cause problems with poor-quality biodiesel.

“A lot of the quality concerns that have appeared in biodiesel are exacerbated in cold weather. For example, one of the common problems experienced by biodiesel producers is the failure to remove glycerin from the finished product,” he said. “In warmer weather, a higher glycerin concentration than what the spec allows may not immediately cause a clogged fuel filter. However, in colder weather, that same off-spec product could strand the truck.”

In 2005, a law mandating biodiesel was passed in Minnesota, but problems with fuel gelling and other temperature-related issues in trucks caused the temporary suspension of the law (1-23-06, p. 1).

Higgins said NBB “heard few quality complaints in the recent past,” but she noted that “it is against the law to sell any fuel that does not meet an ASTM specification” and that biodiesel in blends of up 20% “made with on-spec biodiesel, will perform all winter just like diesel, provided the fuel distributor has properly treated the blend for cold weather use.”