Universal Biofuels restarts biodiesel production
US-headed renewable natural gas (RNG) and renewable fuels company Aemetis Inc., has announced that its India-based subsidiary Universal Biofuels Pvt Ltd has received approval from the local Pollution Control Board (PCB) to restart the production of biodiesel and refined glycerin, enabling the company to fulfill allocations issued by government-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) and other customers.
The company received official notice from the Pollution Control Board (PCB) on February 22, 2025, allowing for the restart of the plant after conducting a review of local air quality.
Universal Biofuels is one of the largest biodiesel producers in India with an 80 million (US) gallon (≈ 303 million litre) per year plant in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, and has been operating in India for more than 17 years.
Universal Biofuels completed US$112 million of revenues from biodiesel and refined glycerin deliveries in the year ended September 2024.
The temporary pause in production at the India plant allowed us to conduct maintenance work. We had produced enough product prior to the shutdown to have sufficient inventory on hand to meet our delivery commitments. The expansion of our production capacity last year to 80 million gallons per year supports the need for more than 1 billion gallons of new biodiesel production in India, said Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis.
Blending mandate is a market-maker
The 25 billion gallon (≈ 94.6 billion) per year petroleum diesel market in India is a significant source of air pollution and health problems in India.
A 5 percent blend of biodiesel has already been adopted by India in the National Biofuels Policy to improve the environment while creating new markets for agricultural and waste products.
Currently, only about a 1 percent biodiesel blend is being implemented. Aemetis is well-positioned to address the government’s requirement for increased biodiesel capacity.
Universal Biofuels has already received US$58 million of allocations for 2025 delivery from Indian OMCs and expects to begin biodiesel shipments to OMCs in March 2025 under these allocations.
IPO planned
To lead a planned Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the Universal Biofuels subsidiary this year, Aemetis recently appointed a new CEO and will announce a new CFO with recent IPO experience after completing a transition from his current position.
The potential expansion of Universal biodiesel production capacity to more than 200 million gallons per year is expected as a use of funds from the planned IPO to meet the growth in biodiesel demand which equates to 1.2 billion gallons (≈ 4.5 billion litres) annually.
A key factor in the growth of Universal Biofuels production capacity is access to renewable oil feedstocks in India which could also include new policies to support imported feedstocks, including soybeans from farmers in the United States.
The adoption of new policies in India that support access to feedstocks, including imports of renewable oils, directly supports the expansion of Aemetis production volumes in India by using imported agricultural products in addition to local feedstocks.
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