D6 RINs Generated in May Up 1.5%

STREATOR, Ill. (DTN) -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday reported 1.221 billion D6 Renewable Identification Numbers were generated in May, up 1.5% from the 1.203 billion D6 RINs generated in April.

For the first five months of the year, 5.818 billion D6 RINs were generated.

Domestic production and imports generating D6 RINs, which is primarily corn-based ethanol, was 1.213 billion gallons in May, up from 1.191 billion in April. Production for the first five months totaled 5.766 billion gallons.

D6 RINs are equal to 1 gallon of renewable fuel produced or imported.

Biomass-based diesel D4 category output from domestic production and imports in May was 149.080 million gallons, up from the 144.047 million gallons in April. For the year so far, a total of 626.011 million gallons of biomass-based diesel were produced. Qualifying renewables under the D4 category include renewable diesel and biodiesel production. Each gallon is worth 1.5 D4 RINs. Total RINs generated in May were 230.459 million, up from 222.985 million in April. Total D4 RINs generated in the five months were 971.852 million.

Advanced biofuel qualifying for D5 RIN generation in May was 26.400 million gallons, up from 22.759 million gallons in April. For the year, 72.478 million D5 gallons were produced. Total D5 RINs generated for May was 27.402 million compared to 23.846 million the month prior. For the first four months, 77.011 million D6 RINs were generated.

In the advanced renewable fuel category, one gallon of sugar-based ethanol is equivalent to one D5 RIN, while one gallon of biodiesel, which also qualifies as an advanced biofuel, is equal to 1.5 D5 RINs. Other advanced biofuels included cellulosic biofuel and cellulosic diesel.

For the cellulosic biofuel D3 category, EPA reported zero gallons produced in May, down from than the 643 gallons produced in April. A total of 57,031 gallons of cellulosic biofuel were produced in the first five months of 2014. There were zero D3 RINs generated last month, down from 643 in April for a total of 68,754 RINs generated in the first five months.

There were zero cellulosic diesel D7 gallons produced in May with a corresponding zero RINs generated. Total D7 gallons produced in 2014 is 7,774 while RINs produced in 2014 so far are 11,422.

RINs are the credits used by obligated parties -- refiners, blenders and importers -- to show compliance in fulfilling their annual Renewable Volume Obligation under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The RFS mandate is scheduled to increase each year until 2022, but the EPA proposed reducing the mandate for 2014 from the statute requirement of 18.1 billion gallons to 15.0 billion to 15.52 billion gallons range.

The largest proposed cut in the 2014 RFS was for the D6 renewable fuel nested category from 14.4 billion gallons stated by statute to 13.0 billion gallons, which would be the first reduction in this category.

The EPA also proposed an adjustment to this year's volume requirement for D3 cellulosic biofuel from 17 million gallons to between 8 million and 30 million gallons and proposed a range between 2.0 billion and 2.51 billion gallons for D5 advanced biofuels compared with statue volume of 2.2 billion gallons.

The D5 nested category includes D3 and D4 blending volume, with D4 representing biomass-based diesel. The EPA proposal left unchanged at 1.28 billion gallons this year's D4 volume mandate, which is above the statute's 1.0 billion gallon requirement.

The EPA issued proposed volumes for 2014 on Nov. 15, 2013. This year's mandate was expected to be finalized June 20, but the EPA missed its own deadline Friday, saying it would issue the final mandate "as soon as possible."

(BM/AG)

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