Aemetis upgrades plant in India, uses lower cost feedstock

The new pre-treatment unit passes first production tests required to supply BP Singapore under a three-year feedstock supply agreement.

 

Aemetis announced 25 April that its subsidiary Universal Biofuels has completed the production of high quality, distilled biodiesel from lower quality, high free fatty acid (FFA) waste feedstock using its recently constructed pre-treatment unit at a biorefinery located on the East Coast of India. The refinery produced biodiesel from high FFA waste feedstock as a part of commissioning the unit for BP Singapore under a three-year supply agreement.

The pre-treatment unit is designed to allow production to meet or exceed the biodiesel quality specifications of international fuel standards using the lower cost high FFA waste feedstock. Aemetis says that BP Singapore has already delivered feedstock for the first production run at the biorefinery.

“The production of distilled biodiesel from high FFA waste feedstock using the new pre-treatment unit is the result of a year of technology development and construction work by our India operations and engineering team alongside key vendors,” stated Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “The Aemetis plant in India is now capable of converting low cost, high FFA waste feedstocks into high quality distilled biodiesel to be sold into the fast-growing India fuels market and the attractive EU and US markets for waste-based biofuels.”

The Aemetis plant in India has a capacity of 50 million gallons per year and is the only biofuels producer in India approved under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard for delivery of biodiesel into California.  In April 2017, Aemetis filed a patent for process technology developed at the India plant.