Universal Biofuels on schedule with biodiesel shipments to OMC customers in India

Aemetis' 50 mgy Universal Biofuels biodiesel production facility in India (Photo: Aemetis Inc.)

Aemetis Inc. announced June 15 that its Universal Biofuels subsidiary in India is on schedule with biodiesel shipments to the three government-owned oil-marketing company (OMC) customers with $27 million (80 percent) of the $34 million in second-quarter contracted deliveries already complete.

The combined orders for the second quarter of this year comprised about 8 million gallons of biodiesel and future volumes are expected to be increased as OMC procurement processes continue to improve.

“Similar to our renewable fuels projects in the United States, Aemetis is committed to improving the environment and health in India by reducing the country’s dependence on imported, high-cost, highly polluting petroleum diesel fuel,” stated Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “Our Universal Biofuels plant is one of only a few biodiesel producers in India that has passed each of the many independent product-quality tests required by the late 2022 and the second-quarter 2023 OMC tenders. We are scaling up our operational capacity to meet quarterly OMC tender offers that are significantly larger than our current capacity to produce biodiesel.”

As the largest producer of biodiesel in India, improvements in the OMC procurement process have enabled the Universal Biofuels plant, scaled at 50 million gallon per year (mgy), to increase production.

Expanded biodiesel production supports the Indian government’s initial goal of a 1 percent biodiesel blend in the amount of about 250 mgy, on the way to fulfilling the 5 percent blend (1.25 billion gallons per year) set forth in the 2022 National Biofuels Policy.

India consumes about 25 billion gallons per year of diesel, but India 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 Indian government under the 2022 National Biofuels Policy is expected to reduce the amount of petroleum imported into India, reduce the export of dollars exported 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.

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

Biodiesel used in heavy transportation reduces particulate emissions 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 50 percent to 80 percent compared to petroleum diesel, directly reducing the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.