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Universal Biofuels completes first expansion

Universal Biofuels completes first expansion
Aemetis Inc. subsidiary Universal Biofuels Pvt Ltd is the owner and operator of a 50 million (US) gallon (≈ 189.2 million litres) per annum biodiesel plant located near the Port of Kakinada on India's east coast (photo courtesy Universal Biofuels).

US-headed advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company Aemetis Inc. has announced that its Universal Biofuels Pvt Ltd subsidiary in India, has completed an expansion of its Kakinada biodiesel plant annual production capacity to 60 million (US) gallons (≈ 227.1 million litres) more than one year ahead of schedule,

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Built by Aemetis near the Port of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, the Universal Biofuels plant is currently the largest biodiesel production facility in India.

Additional capital projects to increase the annual production capacity at the Kakinada biodiesel plant to 80 million gallons (≈ 302.8 million litres) are in the process of completion in the first half of 2024, also ahead of schedule, and will supply the expanding demand for biodiesel by India government-owned Oil Marketing Companies (OMC’s).

The Aemetis Five Year Plan describes an increase from 50 million (US) gallons (≈ 189.25 million litres) per year to 100 million gallons (≈ 378.5 million litres) of biodiesel production capacity at Universal Biofuels to be completed by 2025.

The market for biodiesel in India continues to expand as OMCs increase the number of blending locations and the percentage of biofuel blended into diesel. The Kakinada plant has expanded production by completing upgrades to de-bottleneck the plant, and the next phase will add additional process equipment to increase capacity.  When production capacity reaches 100 million gallons per year, the Indian business will be able to generate more than US$500 million per year of revenues stated Sanjeev Gupta, President of Aemetis International.

Biodiesel brings multiple benefits

The expanded biodiesel production at Universal Biofuels supports the Government of India’s goal of a 5 percent biodiesel blend equal to approximately 1.25 billion gallons (≈ 4.73 billion litres) per year which was established in the 2022 National Biofuels Policy.

India consumes about 25 billion (US) gallons (≈ 94.625 billion litres) per year of diesel but does not have a meaningful amount of domestic oil production and is dependent on imported crude oil to supply its petroleum refineries.

The adoption of a 5 percent biodiesel blend target by the Government of India is expected to reduce the amount of petroleum imported into India, reduce the export of dollars to purchase crude oil, strengthen domestic agricultural producers and processors, and significantly improve air quality while reducing carbon pollution.

Petroleum diesel emissions are a significant contributor to poor air quality and health issues in India.

Traffic in Pune.

According to the Public Health Foundation of India, air pollution cause causes more than US$36 billion of economic losses each year and about one of every six deaths in India are caused by air pollution.

According to Aemetis, biodiesel used in heavy transportation reduces particulate matter (PM) emissions by more than 90 percent compared to petroleum diesel and creates domestic demand in India for agricultural feedstocks and waste byproducts to supply renewable fuel production facilities.

Biodiesel produced from waste feedstocks reduces carbon pollution by up to 80 percent compared to petroleum diesel, directly reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that contribute to climate change.

Aemetis continues to demonstrate our ability to design, engineer, permit, construct and operate renewable fuels production facilities, then continually improve the energy efficiency, feedstocks, and other carbon-intensive components of operations to improve financial margins by reducing costs and increasing revenues. The US ethanol business is doing relatively well due to low feedstock and natural gas costs, and our India biodiesel business continues to perform very well while increasing production capacity without incurring debt. We see our focus on reducing the carbon intensity of our renewable fuels as an expanding competitive advantage compared to petroleum fuels, said Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis.

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