ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The United Soybean Board (USB) approved a proposal at its annual meeting Dec. 6 to partner another year with state soybean checkoff boards to “promote biodiesel as the only advanced biofuel commercially available today,” according to Vanessa Kummer, USB chair.

The proposal allocated $2 million for continuation of the Advanced Biofuels Communication Campaign by the National Biodiesel Board (NBB). Biodiesel leaders say the largest biodiesel communication and media campaign ever has helped the industry’s growth.

“We are experiencing the most tremendous biodiesel year ever,” said Greg Anderson, a Nebraska soybean producer and member of the NBB.

According to Anderson, also a past chair of the USB, U.S. biodiesel production was at 832 million gallons from January through October this year. Production is expected to exceed 1 billion gallons for 2011, he told the USB farmer-directors.

“Biodiesel is an industrial way to use our excess soybean oil,” he said.

“Soybean oil is looked upon as energy which has translated into profit for the farmers we are and represent.”

Some USB members noted continued funding for the communications campaign would help protect the group’s existing investment in biodiesel development.

Despite increased production trends and improving public awareness of biodiesel in 2011, legislative uncertainties still surround the industry. The $1-per-gallon biodiesel tax credit is set to expire on Dec. 31. The credit is widely seen as necessary for biodiesel blenders to maintain profitability.

But USB director-members are also looking beyond biodiesel as soybean oil’s only energy use. “I think Bioheat could be a very big thing in the future,” said John Butler, a USB director from Dyersburg, Tenn.

According to an article Anderson authored in Biodiesel magazine this June, “Bioheat fuel” is the industry’s accepted term for 2 to 5 percent blends of pure biodiesel blended with No. 2 heating oil.

No. 2 heating oil is widely used for heating in the Northeast. Increased blends of biodiesel added to that region’s heating oil could increase biodiesel demand by as much as 450 million gallons annually, according to Anderson’s article.