ALTOONA, IOWA, US — New funding of $19 million from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will increase the availability of domestic biofuels in 22 states.

Funds will be made available through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP), which provides grants to fueling station and distribution facility owners to expand access to biofuels. With the money, business owners plan to install and upgrade infrastructure such as fuel pumps, dispensers and storage tanks.

For example, Casey’s said it will use a $5 million grant to install ethanol blend fuel dispensers at 111 fueling stations in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota. Using these investments, the company aims to increase the amount of biofuels it supplies by 50 million gallons a year.

Piasa Enterprises Inc. in Illinois said it will use a $200,000 grant to install two 30,000-gallon biodiesel storage tanks and associated piping at its Hartford fuel distribution center. The company projects an increase in the amount of biodiesel sold by 2 million gallons per year.

In Maryland, AC&T Inc. said it will install two ethanol fuel dispensers and one ethanol storage tank. Through this project, AC&T owners aim to expand the amount of ethanol they supply by over 106,000 gallons a year.

The full list of states to receive funding is: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the USDA has invested more than $96 million nationwide to increase access to biofuels at fueling stations.