Aemetis Inc. announced Feb. 15 that its Universal Biofuels subsidiary has built distribution tanks and other infrastructure to begin sales of biodiesel to retail fuel stations from the Kakinada, India, biodiesel plant. In late 2018, the India Supreme Court issued a decision that allowed the retail sale of biodiesel in India for the first time.

“The India government biofuels policy adopted in mid-2018 seeks to offset more than 1.2 billion gallons of diesel with domestically produced biodiesel by increasing the target consumption for domestic biodiesel from less than 1 percent to 5 percent,” stated Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “With the recent court approval and subsequent launch of retail sales of biodiesel, our India plant continues to expand its customer base to include the government, truck fleet owners, logistics companies and now retail fuel stations.”

Retail biodiesel customers in India include agricultural uses in tractors and stationery power units, as well as diesel trucks, buses, taxis and cars. After extensive engine testing, the India government approved the use of 100 percent biodiesel to replace diesel, so retail biodiesel customers in India are able to purchase a cleaner, lower cost, domestically produced, renewable biofuel to displace imported diesel.

Recently, the Aemetis plant in India completed installation of a pretreatment unit to process lower-cost and waste feedstock into oil, expand boiler and other utility capacities, and implement environmental systems. The upgrades enable full production of 50 MMgy of biodiesel and bio-oil by simultaneous operation of the biodiesel, pretreatment and glycerin refining units.

In mid-2018, the Goods & Services Tax on biodiesel was reduced from 18 percent to 12 percent to support expansion of biodiesel. The India government also recently issued a purchase requisition for approximately 260 million gallons of biodiesel for year 2019 to be supplied by domestic India biodiesel producers.