Low Carbon Ethanol

Our low-carbon ethanol is a clean-burning, high octane, renewable fuel produced from abundant agricultural and cellulosic feedstocks. Ethanol is used as an effective octane-boosting fuel additive or high-blend fuel. Ethanol is the only low-carbon alternative to gasoline available today. All comparisons to gasoline demonstrate a clear reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with ethanol. Aemetis produces approximately 62 million gallons per year of this renewable clean-burning transportation fuel at its Keyes, California production facility.

Aemetis also produces valuable co-products such as wet distillers grains (WDG), and distillers corn oil (DCO). We sell these high-protein animal feeds to nearby dairies, cattle feedlots. We supply WDG feed for approximately 100,000 cows at 80 dairies within 50 miles of our Keyes facility. In turn, many of these dairies capture manure and biogas in partnership with Aemetis’ Biogas. Additionally, Aemetis extracts DCO in the ethanol production process, which is then sold as animal feed or used in the production of low carbon fuels such as biodiesel or jet fuel. On an annual basis, the Aemetis low-carbon ethanol biorefinery produces over 420,000 tons of WDG and over 5,200 tons of DCO.

Our low-carbon ethanol biorefinery is also in the process of implementing multiple energy efficiency projects that will significantly reduce petroleum-based energy sources like natural gas by converting our existing production systems to renewable electricity. Once fully implemented, the Aemetis Keyes plant expects to apply advanced technologies to reduce natural gas use by 85%. We have added or are constructing several projects to help reduce our carbon footprint, including:

• Mitsubishi’s ZEBREX^© membrane dehydration system that replaces natural gas use with electricity. Now online, the Zebrex^© system has reduced plant natural gas use by approximately 20%.
• Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) replaces the production of steam heat with natural gas to renewable energy. Once online (est. 2023), the MVR system will reduce natural gas use by approximately 65%.
• A 1.9 MW 100% renewable solar microgrid with battery storage.
• A 1.5 MW solar microgrid with battery storage
• High-efficiency heat exchangers reducing natural gas use.

These energy efficiency projects will nearly eliminate our use of petroleum natural gas, which is replaced with renewable electricity for process energy, significantly reducing our GHG footprint. These savings will create over $8 million of projected EBITDA per year. The reduced carbon intensity under LCFS generates $15 million of projected EBITDA.