Industrial biotechnology company Aemetis has announced that its subsidiary, Universal Biofuels, has completed a two-year upgrade of the biodiesel and glycerin plant in Kakinada, India.
Image: Aemetis completes capacity expansion of biodiesel plant in India. Photo: Courtesy of George Mihaila on Unsplash.
The Kakinada plant has been upgraded with new installation of a pre-treatment unit to process lower-cost and waste feedstock into oil, expansion of boiler and other utility capacities; and implementation of environmental systems.
The upgrades are aimed at enhancing the production up to 50 million gallons per year of biodiesel and bio-oil, simultaneously operating the biodiesel, pre-treatment and glycerin refining units.
Last year, the Indian government has announced National Policy on Biofuel 2018 increased the target for domestic biodiesel consumption to 5% of the about 25 billion gallons of petroleum diesel consumed in the country each year from currently less than a 1% biodiesel blend.
The government has reduced the Goods & Services Tax on biodiesel from 18% to 12% to support expansion of biodiesel.
The Supreme Court of India has also supported by determining that biodiesel may be sold at retail fueling stations, significantly expanding the market for biodiesel in India.
For the year 2019, the Indian government has issued a purchase requisition for approximately 260 million gallons of biodiesel to be supplied by domestic India biodiesel producers.
Aemetis Chairman and CEO Eric McAfee said: “The Aemetis team in India is executing on a rapid increase in production and revenues this year to meet growing domestic market demand for biofuels in a fast-growing economy.
“As the only US company producing biofuels in India, Aemetis built and has now fully upgraded our India biodiesel and refined glycerin plant to use low cost feedstocks to become a leader in the rapidly expanding India biofuels market.”
In the first three quarters of 2018, the company’s biodiesel plant produced about 15,200 metric tons of biodiesel during the plant upgrade construction.
McAfee added: “Importantly, this extensive upgrade to the Kakinada plant was achieved without issuing additional stock or otherwise diluting existing shareholders of Aemetis.
“Aemetis continues to execute on funding and building projects that generate highly valued, low carbon biofuels primarily from waste or reused materials.”