The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday expanded the types of fuel that can be used to satisfy the federal biofuel mandate, a move that could play a role in the agency’s delayed targets for 2014 renewable fuel use.
The EPA finalized a plan allowing compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas produced using biogas from landfills, manure digesters and sewage treatment plants to qualify as cellulosic biofuel, fuel typically derived from sources like grasses and wood.
Electricity generated from biogas and used to power electric vehicles would also qualify to meet the cellulosic portion of the federal biofuel mandate.
“These pathways have the potential to provide notable volumes of cellulosic biofuel for use in complying with the (Renewable Fuel Standard) program, since significant volumes of advanced biofuels are already being generated for fuel made from biogas,” the EPA said.
Cellulosic biofuels were supposed to make up a growing portion of the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires use of increasing amounts of biofuels in U.S. gasoline and diesel supplies through 2022. But production of the fuel on a commercial scale is still next to nothing.
Read the full, original story: U.S. EPA approves new fuels for federal biofuel mandate
