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Argonne National Laboratory has released the 2021 version of its Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET®) Model. GREET updates are closely watched by biofuel industry stakeholders and other compliance market participants, as the model serves as a basis for emission measurements used in the California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) among other programs.
Here are some key takeaways for biodiesel and renewable diesel industry stakeholders:
- GREET 2021 includes updated pathways for feedstock preparation, biomass processing and conversion of soy oil to biodiesel and renewable diesel
- Existing pathways for feedstock preparation of canola oil have been updated, and pathways for converting this feedstock to biodiesel and renewable diesel have benefited from updates to data for soy oil and other pathways
- Biodisel conversion pathways for tallow have benefited from updates to data for soy oil and other pathways
- Existing pathways for converting corn oil to biodiesel and renewable diesel have also been updated
- New pathways have been added for converting carinata to biodiesel and renewable diesel, for converting palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) to biodiesel, and tallow to renewable diesel
- New pathways have been added for used cooking oil (UCO) feedstock preparation, biomass processing and conversion to biodiesel and renewable diesel
According to Argonne, newly completed pathways for converting UCO to biodiesel and renewable diesel will be released “towards end of calendar year 2021.”
The newly updated GREET Model can be downloaded from the Argonne website along with a PDF “Summary of Expansions and Updates in GREET 2021.”