Aemetis, Inc. (Aemetis) operates as an international renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company.
The company focuses on the operation, acquisition, development, and commercialization of innovative technologies to produce low and negative carbon intensity renewable fuels that replace fossil-based products. The company does this by building a circular bioeconomy using local agricultural products and waste to produce low carbon, advanced renewable fuels that reduce greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) em...
Aemetis, Inc. (Aemetis) operates as an international renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company.
The company focuses on the operation, acquisition, development, and commercialization of innovative technologies to produce low and negative carbon intensity renewable fuels that replace fossil-based products. The company does this by building a circular bioeconomy using local agricultural products and waste to produce low carbon, advanced renewable fuels that reduce greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) emissions and improve air quality. Its operations include:
California Ethanol - The company owns and operates a 65 million gallon per year capacity ethanol production facility in Keyes, California (the ‘Keyes Plant’). In addition to low carbon renewable fuel ethanol, the Keyes Plant produces Wet Distillers Grains (‘WDG’), Distillers Corn Oil (‘DCO’), and Condensed Distillers Solubles (‘CDS’), all of which are sold as animal feed to local dairies and feedlots. The Keyes Plant also sells alcohol to beverage producers and sells CO2 that is processed into commercial grade for use in food, beverage, and other industries. The company is implementing several energy efficiency initiatives at the Keyes Plant focused on reducing operating costs and lowering the carbon intensity of the company’s ethanol.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas - The company produces Renewable Natural Gas (‘RNG’) in central California. The company’s facilities consist of eleven anaerobic digesters that produce biogas from dairy waste, a 36-mile biogas collection pipeline leading to a central upgrading hub, and an interconnection to inject the RNG into the utility natural gas pipeline for delivery for use as transportation fuel. The company is actively expanding its RNG production, with several additional dairy digesters under construction, agreements with a total of 50 dairies, and a completed environmental review for an additional 24 miles of biogas pipeline. The company is also building its own RNG dispensing station, which is planned to begin operating in the second half of 2025.
India Biodiesel - The company owns and operates a plant in Kakinada, India (‘Kakinada Plant’) with a capacity to produce about 80 million gallons per year of high-quality distilled biodiesel from a variety of vegetable oil and animal waste feedstocks. The Kakinada Plant is one of the largest biodiesel production facilities in India. The Kakinada Plant also distills the crude glycerin byproduct from the biodiesel refining process into refined glycerin that is sold to the pharmaceutical, personal care, paint, adhesive, and other industries.
In addition, the company is actively growing its business by seeking to develop or acquire new facilities, including the following key projects:
Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Renewable Diesel – The company is developing a sustainable aviation fuel (‘SAF’) and renewable diesel (‘RD’) production plant to be located at the Riverbank Industrial Complex in Riverbank, CA. The plant is designed to produce 90 million gallons per year of RD or 78 million gallons per year of SAF from renewable vegetable and animal oils obtained from the company’s other biofuels plants and other sources. The plant is designed to use low-carbon hydroelectric electricity and renewable hydrogen that will be generated from byproducts of SAF/RD production. The company received approval of the Use Permit and CEQA for the development of the plant in September 2023 and the Authority to Construct air permits in March 2024. The company is continuing with the engineering and other required development activities for the facility.
Carbon Capture and Underground Sequestration – The company is developing Carbon Capture and Underground Sequestration (‘CCUS’) facilities, also located at the Riverbank Industrial Complex, that is designed to inject carbon dioxide more than one mile underground for geologic storage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere that contribute to global warming. In May 2023, the company received a permit from the State of California to drill a geologic characterization well that will provide information required for the design and permitting of a CCUS well. The company plans to construct the characterization well in 2025 and at the same time is continuing engineering, permitting and other development activities for the permanent sequestration injection and monitoring wells.
Segments
The company operates in three reportable segments: California Ethanol, California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas, and India Biodiesel. The company has other operating segments determined not to be reportable segments and are collectively represented by the ‘All Other’ category.
The company’s California Ethanol segment consists of a 65 million gallon per year capacity ethanol production facility located in Keyes, California (the Keyes Plant) that it owns and operates. In addition to low carbon renewable fuel ethanol, the Keyes Plant produces alcohol for beverage producers, Wet Distillers Grains (WDG), Distillers Corn Oil (DCO), and Condensed Distillers Solubles (CDS). WDG, DCO, and CSS are sold as animal feed to more than 80 local dairies and feedlots. The company also captures the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions from its fermenters and sell it to an industrial gas company to produce liquid CO2 that it sells to food, beverage, and industrial customers. The company is implementing several energy efficiency initiatives focused on lowering the carbon intensity of its fuels, primarily by decreasing the use of fossil natural gas. These energy efficiency projects include high efficiency heat exchangers; a two-megawatt solar microgrid with battery storage; an Allen Bradley Decision Control System (DCS) to manage and optimize energy use and other plant operations; and a Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) system to produce steam using low carbon electricity instead of natural gas. These changes will lower the carbon intensity (CI) of the ethanol the company produces and allows it to sell it for a correspondingly higher price.
The company's California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas segment, Aemetis Biogas LLC, or ABGL, operates anaerobic digesters at local dairies near the Keyes Plant, many of which also purchase WDG produced by the Keyes Plant as animal feed, to produce biogas from dairy waste. The company transports the biogas by pipeline to the Keyes Plant site and converts the biogas to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) that is delivered to customers through the regional natural gas pipeline. The company currently has eleven operating digesters that receive dairy waste from twelve dairies, and it is actively growing with additional digesters under construction. The company has constructed 36 miles of biogas collection pipeline and has received environmental approval to construct an additional 24 miles of pipeline. The company currently has agreements with a total of 50 dairies and is seeking to sign additional agreements with dairies.
The company's India Biodiesel segment includes a biodiesel production plant in Kakinada, India (Kakinada Plant) with a nameplate production capacity of about 80 million gallons per year. The plant produces high-quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India. The Kakinada Plant is capable of processing a variety of vegetable and animal oil waste feedstocks into biodiesel that meets applicable product standards. The company's Kakinada Plant can also distill the crude glycerin byproduct from the biodiesel refining process into refined glycerin, which is sold to the pharmaceutical, personal care, paint, adhesive, and other industries.
The company's ‘All Other’ segment consists of projects that are under development, including its planned Carbon Capture and Underground Sequestration (CCUS) operations and the planned sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel plant in Riverbank, California. It also includes the company's research and development facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the operation of the Riverbank Industrial Complex, and its corporate offices in Cupertino, California.
The company's planned sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel (RD) production plant is currently designed to produce 90 million gallons per year of RD or 78 million gallons per year of SAF from feedstocks consisting of renewable waste vegetable and animal oils. The company's first facility is planned to be located at the Riverbank Industrial Complex in Riverbank, California. The company signed a lease with an option to purchase for the Riverbank Industrial Complex in 2021 and took possession of the site in 2022. In 2023, the company received a Use Permit and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) approval for the SAF/RD plant, and in 2024, it received Authority to Construct air permits for the plant. The company is continuing with development activities, including engineering and financing. The site has access to low carbon hydroelectric power, and the company's plant is designed to use renewable hydrogen that will be produced from byproducts of the SAF/RD production process.
The company's planned CCUS projects will compress and inject CO2 into deep wells that are monitored to ensure the long-term sequestration of carbon underground. California’s Central Valley has been identified as one of the world’s most favorable regions for large-scale CO2 injection projects due to the subsurface geologic formations that absorb and contain CO2 gas. The two initial Aemetis CCUS injection projects are being designed to capture and sequester more than two million metric tons per year of CO2 at the Aemetis biofuels plant sites in Keyes and Riverbank, California. In 2023, the company obtained a permit to construct a geologic characterization well at the Riverbank site to obtain information to support an EPA Class VI CO2 injection well permit application. Once operational, these projects will generate revenue by selling California LCFS credits and federal Internal Revenue Code Section 45Q tax credits.
The company’s Minneapolis, Minnesota research and development laboratory evaluates and develops technologies that would use low carbon intensity and waste feedstocks to produce low or below zero carbon intensity biofuels and biochemicals. The company is focused on processes that extract sugar from cellulosic feedstocks and produce low carbon ethanol, renewable hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and renewable diesel.
Strategy
Key elements of the company’s strategy include:
California Ethanol: This segment’s strategy includes improving the energy efficiency of the Keyes Plant and continuing to seek alternative feedstocks that minimize carbon emissions.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas: This segment’s strategy includes leveraging its position as an established dairy digester owner and operator to continue to build dairy digesters and connected pipeline to increase RNG production.
India Biodiesel: This segment’s strategy includes capitalizing on policy changes by the Government of India; diversifying its feedstocks; and developing and commercially deploying technologies to produce high-margin products.
Other Initiatives: The company’s strategy includes utilizing technology for the development and production of additional advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals; utilizing site control of the company’s Keyes and riverbank properties to construct production plants to produce low and negative carbon intensity products; and evaluating and pursuing technology and facility acquisition opportunities.
2024 Highlights
California Ethanol
The company produces six products at the company’s California Ethanol plant: denatured fuel ethanol, wet distillers’ grains (WDG), distillers corn oil (DCO), condensed distillers solubles, undenatured alcohol for beverage producers, and CO2. The products reflect the company's primary production, and also the result of the company's strategy over the last decade to convert substantially all of the byproducts of the plant into marketable products. During 2024, the company completed installation of a solar microgrid, as a key step in electrifying and further reducing the carbon emissions from the plant. The plant operated for all twelve months of 2024.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas
The company delivers Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) to the market through its interconnection with the utility gas pipeline. The company uses contractual relationships with third-party RNG fueling stations to dispense gas for transportation use. In connection with dispensing for transportation use, the company generated sellable credits under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, (referred to as D3 RINs), and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). In 2024, the company increased RNG production by operating its previously built digesters for the entire year, and by commissioning five new digesters. The increase in production also increased the number of D3 RINs and LCFS credits generated and sold. The company's dairies have been generating LCFS credits using the temporary negative 150 carbon intensity, while provisional carbon intensity pathways are under review by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
India Biodiesel
The company produces two primary products at the Kakinada Plant: biodiesel and refined glycerin, which is manufactured by further processing the crude glycerin that is a byproduct of biodiesel production. During 2023 and 2024, the company sold biodiesel to the government Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, and Indian Oil Corporation. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the company received an initial 12-month allocation from the OMCs and began executing this allocation.
Customers
California Ethanol: The company sells substantially all of the ethanol, WDG, DCO, and CDS it produces to J.D. Heiskell under the J.D. Heiskell Purchasing Agreement, and J.D. Heiskell resells the products to marketers designated by the company. The company has designated a single fuel marketing company, Murex LLC, to purchase its ethanol, which is then resold to fuel blenders. The company has designated A.L. Gilbert, Co., an animal feed company located adjacent to the Keyes ethanol plant, to sell and distribute its WDG. The company sells the CO2 gas from its fermenters to an industrial gas company that operates a commercial-grade CO2 production plant connected to the Keyes Plant by a dedicated pipeline.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas: The company delivers Renewable Natural Gas into the utility gas pipeline via interconnection and sell it to transportation customers through a contractual relationship with fuel dispensing companies. The company sells the environmental attributes through industry brokers.
India Biodiesel: The company sells biodiesel to the three Government OMCs.
Environmental and Regulatory Matters
The company’s air emissions are subject to the federal Clean Air Act, and similar state laws, which generally require the company to obtain and maintain air emission permits for its ongoing operations, as well as for any expansion of existing facilities or any new facilities.
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