Local officials approve Universal Biofuels to restart biodiesel plant in India

Photo: Aemetis Inc.

Aemetis Inc. announced Feb. 24 that its biodiesel plant in India, Universal Biofuels, received approval from the local pollution-control board (PCB) to restart production of biodiesel and refined glycerin after receiving a notice by local officials Jan. 19 to halt operations until a review over odor complaints was conducted.

The restart will enable the company to fulfill allocations issued by government-owned oil-marketing companies (OMCs) and other customers.

The company received official notice from PCB Feb. 22 allowing the restart of the plant after conducting a review of local air quality.

Universal Biofuels, a subsidiary of Aemetis, one of the largest biodiesel producers in India with an 80-million-gallon-per-year (mgy) plant in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, has been operating in India for more than 17 years.

Universal Biofuels completed $112 million of revenues from biodiesel and refined glycerin deliveries in the year ended September 2024.

“The temporary pause in production at the India plant allowed us to conduct maintenance work,” said Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “We had produced enough product prior to the shutdown to have sufficient inventory on hand to meet our delivery commitments. The expansion of our production capacity last year to 80 mgy supports the need for more than 1 billion gallons of new biodiesel production in India.”

The 25-billion-gallon-per-year petroleum-diesel market in India is a significant source of air pollution and health problems in India.

A 5 percent blend of biodiesel has already been adopted by India in the National Biofuels Policy to improve the environment while creating new markets for agricultural and waste products.

Currently, only about a 1 percent biodiesel blend is being implemented.

Aemetis said it is well positioned to address the government’s requirement for increased biodiesel capacity.

Universal has already received $58 million of allocations for 2025 delivery from India OMCs.

Universal expects to begin biodiesel shipments to OMCs in March under these allocations.

To lead a planned initial public offering (IPO) of the Universal Biofuels subsidiary this year, Aemetis recently appointed a new CEO and will announce a new chief financial officer with recent IPO experience after completing a transition from his current position.

The potential expansion of Universal Biofuels’ biodiesel production capacity to more than 200 mgy is expected as a use of funds from the planned IPO to meet the growth in biodiesel demand, which equates to 1.2 billion gallons annually.

A key factor in the growth of Universal Biofuels production capacity is access to renewable-oil feedstocks in India, which could also include new policies to support imported feedstocks—including soybeans from farmers in the United States.

The adoption of new policies in India that support access to feedstocks, including imports of renewable oils, directly support the expansion of Aemetis production volumes in India by using imported agricultural products in addition to local feedstocks.