Aemetis Inc. announced Aug. 28 that its Universal Biofuels subsidiary in India has completed construction of initial process equipment and has obtained regulatory approval for the production of enzymatic biodiesel at its biodiesel plant in Kakinada, India, using a patent-pending process technology developed by Aemetis. These approvals allow the use of low-cost waste oil feedstocks for the production of biodiesel using Aemetis enzymatic production processes to supply customers, primarily in the U.S. and Europe, through a supply contract with a major oil company.

Following the EU’s issuance of antidumping duties against countries that subsidize biodiesel production, the U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced a more than 50 percent antidumping duty against Argentina and Indonesia biodiesel imports. Aemetis’ India subsidiary is expected to provide biodiesel to the U.S. market to replace a portion of the more than 400 million gallons per year of Argentina and Indonesian biodiesel imported into the U.S. annually.

A patent was filed on this proprietary pretreatment process technology in April and enables the enzymatic processing of waste oil feedstock to biodiesel by solving the primary issue of enzymatic biodiesel production: the requirement that feedstock reach and maintain an optimal temperature that allows for maximum enzymatic activity.

The Aemetis biorefinery in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, has a capacity of 50 MMgy of biodiesel, along with the ability to produce and supply refined glycerin to pharmaceutical and industrial customers. The Aemetis plant is the first and only India biofuels producer approved under the low carbon fuel standard for delivery of tallow and waste oil biodiesel into California.