Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Renewable Fuel Standard ...

Another case in which a RIN may not be assigned to a batch of renewable fuel would
be if the renewable fuel was consumed within the confines of the production facility where it
was made. RINs under today's proposal would be assigned to renewable fuel when it leaves
the production facility. So long as renewable fuel remained at the production facility, it
would not need to be assigned a RIN.
A third case in which some renewable fuel would not be assigned a RIN would occur
for small volume producers. We are proposing that renewable fuel producers who produce
less than 10,000 gallons in a year would not be required to generate RINs or assign them to
batches. If they chose to register as a renewable fuel producer under the RFS program,
however, they would be subject to all the regulatory provisions that apply to all producers,
including the requirement to assign RINs to batches. We request comment on the 10,000
gallon threshold.
A fourth case in which some renewable fuel would not be assigned a RIN could occur
when a gasoline or diesel blending component is only partially derived from a renewable
source. In such cases the Equivalence Value associated with the renewable fuel would be
less than 1.0, indicating that it is produced by combining a renewable fuel with a nonrenewable
fossil fuel. For instance, ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) is made from
combining ethanol with isobutylene. The ethanol is generally from corn, and the isobutylene
is generally from petroleum. Equivalence Values are discussed in Section III.B.4. In this
situation only a fraction of the gallons of renewable fuel produced would be assigned a RIN
in proportion to its Equivalence Value, with the remaining gallons not being assigned a RIN.
Finally, a renewable fuel whose energy content is less than that of ethanol might also
be assigned an Equivalence Value less than 1.0, and as a result fewer gallon-RINs would be
assigned to a batch than physical gallons in that batch. For example, methanol made from
biogenic methane (biogas) for use in a methanol vehicle would have an energy content less
than that for ethanol. Although methanol is currently used as a fuel in only very small
quantities, if it was produced from renewable feedstocks it would have an Equivalence Value
less than 1.0.
If a renewable fuel has a Equivalence Value less than 1.0, then gallon-RINs could
only be assigned to a portion of the batch. The number of gallons within a batch that could
be assigned a RIN would be calculated from the following formula:
where:
Va = EV x Vs
Va = Volume of the batch that is assigned a RIN, in gallons (rounded to the nearest
whole gallon)
EV = Equivalence Value for the renewable fuel in question (≤ 1.0)
= Total volume of the batch standardized to 60 o F, in gallons
Vs
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