HOUSTON, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Soybean oil constituted a larger share of U.S. biodiesel production, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday.

According to the EIA, the share of total soybean oil consumed as a biodiesel feedstock doubled, from about 15 percent to currently 30 percent, as total U.S. soybean oil supply grew between marketing year 2010-2011 and 2017-2018, from about 22.5 billion pounds (about 10.21 billion kg) to nearly 26.0 billion pounds (11.8 billion kg).

Soybean oil is the most commonly used vegetable oil for biodiesel production, and inputs reached 7.1 billion pounds (3.2 billion kg) during the latest soybean oil marketing year which ran from Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2018.

Between marketing year 2010-2011 and marketing year 2017-2018, U.S. domestic biodiesel production grew from 700 million gallons (about 2.65 billion liters) to 1.8 billion gallons (6.8 billion liters).

Growth in biodiesel production coincided with federal biofuel mandates and other conditions that encouraged a larger share of the domestic soybean oil supply to be consumed as biofuel feedstock.

The increase in production was largely driven by the Renewable Fuel Standard, a program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that mandates the blending of renewable fuels into the nation's fuel supply.

About half of U.S. raw soybeans are exported, and much of the rest is processed, or crushed, at soybean processing plants in the United States. The soybean crush yields about 80 percent soybean meal and 20 percent soybean oil, which may be further processed into various food and non-food products.

Biodiesel is a mixture of chemical compounds produced from a variety of vegetable oils, fats and greases. In the United States, vegetable oils constitute about three-fourths of total biodiesel feedstock, with soybean oil accounting for slightly more than half of total inputs by weight. Enditem

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