September 3, 2013
Aemetis Announces EPA Approval as the First Converted Corn Ethanol Plant to Produce D5 Advanced Biofuels Using Sorghum/Biogas/CHP
Aemetis California Plant Approved for Same Low-Carbon Biofuels Category as Brazilian Ethanol
CUPERTINO, Calif. – September 3, 2013 – Aemetis, Inc. (OTCQB: AMTX), an advanced fuels and renewable chemicals company, announced today that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted Aemetis approval to produce ethanol using grain sorghum and biogas with the plant’s existing Combined Heat & Power (CHP) system to generate higher-value D5 Advanced Biofuels Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs).
The EPA approval also includes D5 RIN generation for separated food waste feedstock used at the Keyes plant, allowing Aemetis to qualify its ethanol as Advanced Biofuels through the processing of certain food/beverage waste streams into ethanol.
RINs are numerical codes created with every gallon of biofuel domestically produced or imported into the US. RINs play the dual role of a renewable fuel credit to incentivize renewable fuel use, and a tracking mechanism to monitor the production, movement and blending of biofuels.
”With $190 million of revenues in 2012 from our plants in the US and India, Aemetis is already at commercial scale in the production of non-food, lower-carbon, lower-cost, higher value, advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals,” said Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “The Aemetis 50 mgy India renewable fuels plant was uniquely constructed in 2008 to use the stearine waste product from the edible oils industry to produce non-food biodiesel and refined glycerin for pharmaceutical and industrial customers.”
“After several years of work and significant investment, today the Aemetis Keyes plant was approved by the EPA as the first corn ethanol plant in the US to be converted to use lower-carbon feedstocks and renewable energy sources to produce Advanced Biofuels and earn valuable D5 RINs,” McAfee stated.
The flexible feedstock design of the Keyes plant allows Aemetis to utilize both traditional and advanced feedstocks and energy sources to produce renewable fuels, including higher-value, advanced biofuels to help meet the Advanced Biofuels requirement of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Until now, the D5 Advanced Biofuels RIN portion of the RFS has been mostly met by imported Brazilian sugarcane ethanol or by substituting D4 biodiesel RINs due to a lack of advanced ethanol production.