The plan to ban Biodiesel has been put on hold for a year by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality due to contradicting reports from the EPA and the National Renewable Energy Lab(NREL) on how much NOx emissions are given off by B20 blended fuel. If they based it on EPA results then using biodiesel would be going against mandated NOx levels. The one year will be used to further study the issue before deciding.
The EPA’s 2002 study says NOx levels would increase by 2% for B20 and 13% for B100. NREL’s version however states that it is only 1/2 of 1% (0.5%) of an increase.
This is really a dilemma, because in order to combat this, biodiesel producers can add additives to reduce the NOx emissions, but this in effect will not make it’s price competitive with regular diesel. Although the Ozone Layer is known to be improving in the arctic regions due to the reduction of the usage of Ozone Depleting chemicals, this could be of no use if NOx emissions increase due to the use of Biodiesel in mass transportation. True enough here in the Philippines it would be a big factor as mass transportation is fueled by Diesel, this in part would make my country a major contributor to Ozone depletion.
