Aemetis completes India plant capacity upgrade

US-based renewable chemicals and fuels producer Aemitis announced the completion of a 2-year capacity upgrade to its biodiesel and glycerin plant in Kakinada, India.

Upgrades to the Kakinada plant included the installation of a pre-treatment unit to process lower-cost and waste feedstock into oil; the expansion of boiler and other utility capacities; and the implementation of environmental systems to enable full production of 50 million gallons of biodiesel and bio-oil per year whilst simultaneously operating the biodiesel, pre-treatment and glycerin refining units.

The capacity upgrade follows suit with legislation changes in India, including the 2018 national policy increasing the target for domestic biodiesel consumption to 5% of the total amount of petroleum diesel consumed in India each year.

“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,” said Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis.

“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.”

“The innovative feedstock pre-treatment unit developed and installed at the Kakinada plant provides a sustainable cost advantage and produces lower carbon biofuels to supply the growing India domestic market for biodiesel and refined glycerin, as well as export markets,” said Sanjeev Gupta, managing director of Universal Biofuels.

“Expanding our steam and power requirements to enable the full operation of the new feedstock pretreatment unit along with our existing biodiesel and glycerin refining units required a substantial investment of time and specialized technical expertise. The entire plant is now capable of operating at 50 million gallons per year of biodiesel capacity using valuable lower cost, lower carbon and waste feedstocks.”