Non-Petroleum Transportation Fuels at 50-Year High

Increased use of natural gas and biofuel blending responsible for increase.

May 19, 2015

WASHINGTON – While petroleum remains far and away the most-consumed transportation fuel, other fuels are now at their highest level of use since the mid-1950s, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). While the previous 1954 peak occurred at a time when the use of coal-fired steam locomotives was declining and automobile use was growing rapidly, today’s increase is largely due to more blending of biomass-based fuels with traditional vehicle fuels, along with the growing use of natural gas in the transportation sector.

After nearly 50 years of relative stability at about 4%, the nonpetroleum share has been increasing steadily since the mid-2000s, reaching a high of 8.5% in 2014. Of the nonpetroleum fuels used for transportation, ethanol has grown most rapidly in recent years, increasing by nearly one quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) between 2000 and 2014. Nearly all of the ethanol consumed was blended into gasoline as E10 or less, but a small amount was used in vehicles capable of running on higher blends as the availability of flex-fuel vehicles grew. Consumption of biodiesel, mostly blended into diesel fuel for use in trucks and buses, grew to more than 180 trillion Btu by 2014.

In 2014, transportation use of natural gas also reached a historic high of 946 trillion Btu, representing 3.5% of all natural gas used in the United States. Transportation natural gas is mostly used in the operation of pipelines, primarily to run compressor stations and to deliver natural gas to consumers. Natural gas used to fuel vehicles, although a much smaller amount, has more than doubled since 2000.

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