Aemetis India to Acquire Site for Biodiesel and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Feedstock Refining Facility

India biodiesel plant adds pre-treatment facility to convert crude tallow into refined tallow for biodiesel production and export of feedstock to California 

CUPERTINO, CA, Feb. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire – Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMTX), a renewable fuels company focused on negative carbon intensity products, announced today that the Universal Biofuels subsidiary of Aemetis in Kakinada, India has agreed to acquire a site to construct a tallow oil refining facility.  The refining facility is designed to supply feedstock to the existing Aemetis 50 million gallon per year biodiesel plant located on the East Coast of India and provide future feedstock supply to the Aemetis 90 million gallon sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel (RD) plant being built in Riverbank, California. 

“Our circular bioeconomy of renewable and carbon-negative fuels facilities includes our Kakinada biodiesel facility in India, which provides Aemetis unique global access to low carbon intensity, non-edible, renewable waste oils for the production of sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and biodiesel,” stated Eric McAfee, the Chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “Expanding our India operation to produce refined oil feedstock to supply Aemetis production plants in India and California demonstrates our commitment to fighting global climate change, improving air quality and creating jobs in disadvantaged communities worldwide.”

In addition to the feedstock pretreatment unit already operational at the Aemetis biodiesel plant in Kakinada, the new feedstock refining facility will expand the range of feedstocks that can be used for biodiesel, SAF and RD production to include crude tallow oil. Recent regulations adopted by the Indian Government encourage oil refiners and fuel distributors to purchase biodiesel for blending into petroleum diesel. The new feedstock refining facility will expand access to India renewable oil feedstock for existing and future Aemetis renewable fuels plants in India and California.

Aemetis built, owns and operates the Kakinada biodiesel plant with an installed capacity of 150,000 metric tonnes per year, equal to about 50 million gallons of biodiesel production annually. The Aemetis Kakinada plant is one of the largest biodiesel production facilities in India and is capable of processing a variety of vegetable oils, animal oils, and waste oil feedstocks into biodiesel that meet international product standards. 

The Kakinada biodiesel plant has been upgraded to convert the crude glycerin byproduct from the biodiesel refining process into refined glycerin for pharmaceutical and industrial customers. DeSmet-Ballestra, a leading biodiesel production technology company based in Europe, supplied the design and engineering for the Kakinada plant.

About Aemetis

Aemetis has a mission to transform renewable energy with below zero carbon intensity transportation fuels. Aemetis has launched the Carbon Zero production process to decarbonize the transportation sector using today’s infrastructure. 

Aemetis Carbon Zero products include zero carbon fuels that can “drop in” to be used in airplane, truck, and ship fleets. Aemetis low-carbon fuels have substantially reduced carbon intensity compared to standard petroleum fossil-based fuels across their lifecycle. 

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is a renewable natural gas, renewable fuel and biochemicals company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that replace petroleum-based products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Founded in 2006, Aemetis has completed Phase 1 and is expanding a California biogas digester network and pipeline system to convert dairy waste gas into Renewable Natural Gas. Aemetis owns and operates a 65 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in California’s Central Valley near Modesto that supplies about 80 dairies with animal feed. Aemetis also owns and operates a 50 million gallon per year production facility on the East Coast of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India and Europe. Aemetis is developing the Carbon Zero sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel fuel biorefineries in California to utilize distillers corn oil and other renewable oils to produce low carbon intensity renewable jet and diesel fuel using cellulosic hydrogen from waste orchard and forest wood, while pre-extracting cellulosic sugars from the waste wood to be processed into high value cellulosic ethanol at the Keyes plant. Aemetis holds a portfolio of patents and exclusive technology licenses to produce renewable fuels and biochemicals.  For additional information about Aemetis, please visit www.aemetis.com. 

Safe Harbor Statement 

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding assumptions, projections, expectations, targets, intentions or beliefs about future events or other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements relating to the development and construction of the feedstock refining facility in India, the sustainable aviation and renewable diesel fuel projects, and our ability to access markets and funding to execute our business plan.  Words or phrases such as “anticipates,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” “projects,” “showing signs,” “targets,” “view,” “will likely result,” “will continue” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions and predictions and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties.  Actual results or events could differ materially from those set forth or implied by such forward-looking statements and related assumptions due to certain factors, including, without limitation, competition in the ethanol, biodiesel and other industries in which we operate, commodity market risks including those that may result from current weather conditions, financial market risks, customer adoption, counter-party risks, risks associated with changes to federal policy or regulation, and other risks detailed in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and in our subsequent filings with the SEC.  We are not obligated, and do not intend, to update any of these forward-looking statements at any time unless an update is required by applicable securities laws.

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