via NewMediaWire -- Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMTX), a
renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company focused on
negative carbon intensity products, announced today that the
company’s board of directors has approved the establishment of a
new subsidiary named Aemetis Carbon Capture, Inc. California’s
Central Valley is well established as a major region for
large-scale CO2injection projects due to the geologic formation of
subsurface shale caprock that safely contains and retains gases.
The company’s carbon capture business unit will
initially capture, dehydrate, compress, and sequester CO2from
Aemetis Biogas anaerobic dairy digester projects to further reduce
the carbon intensity (CI) of its dairy biogas, which was recently
certified by CARB as negative 426 (-426) for a Fuel Pathway
established by Aemetis utilizing biogas from the company’s first
two operating dairy lagoon anaerobic digesters for the production
of renewable fuel. Currently, the -426 Aemetis dairy biogas
carbon intensity score does not include the value of
CO2 Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS).
The planned 52 dairies in the Aemetis Biogas
projects are expected to produce approximately 1.4 million MMBtu’s
of dairy Renewable Natural Gas and about 50,000 metric tonnes of
CO2each year. The Aemetis ethanol plant currently
produces approximately 150,000 metric tonnes of CO2per year, and
the renewable jet/diesel plant under development is expected to
produce 160,000 tonnes per year of CO2.
When related to transportation fuels production,
CO2sequestered underground is estimated to generate approximately
$200 per metric tonne under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard
(LCFS). The IRS 45Q tax credit value for sequestered
CO2is approximately $50 per tonne.
According to the EPA, approximately one metric
tonne of CO2is emitted for every 2,500 miles driven in a passenger
car. Capturing and sequestering the annual CO2from biogas
generated by 52 dairies can offset the CO2emissions from up to
125,000,000 passenger car miles.
“Significant new legislation has been introduced
in Congress to support the existing California LCFS and IRS 45Q
carbon intensity reduction programs with additional carbon
sequestration grants, investment tax credits, and other support,”
said Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis, Inc. “The
formation of Aemetis Carbon Capture, Inc.is a key milestone in
achieving a significant increase in the value of RNG by adding
Carbon Capture & Sequestration to reduce the carbon intensity
of the RNG produced from dairies. The Aemetis
Biogas projects with carbon sequestration by Aemetis Carbon Capture
provide dairies with a compelling opportunity to avoid liability
for methane emissions under the LCFS program. Over the
next five years, Aemetis plans to invest more than $300 million
into dairy RNG and CCS projects that are already operating or in
development,” added McAfee.
The Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester
Project is a collection of dairy digesters and a 36-mile
pipeline with gas cleanup and compression that are built, owned,
and operated by Aemetis Biogas LLC. The project produces
renewable methane gas which is converted to negative carbon
intensity RNG for transportation use to displace petroleum diesel
fuel. An estimated 25% of total methane emissions in
California is produced by dairy waste lagoons.
In September 2020, Aemetis Biogas
LLCcompleted two dairy digesters and four miles of private biogas
pipeline, which is already powering the production of low carbon
biofuels at the Aemetis ethanol plant in Keyes,
California. A 32-mile Aemetis pipeline extension
recently received CEQA permit approval to carry biogas from dairies
in Stanislaus and Merced counties to the Keyes plant for biogas
cleanup and conversion to RNG for sale as transportation
fuel.
The company plans to begin construction of the
next five dairy digesters and the additional 32 miles of biogas
pipeline in the second quarter of 2021, with five more dairy
digesters set to begin construction in the third quarter of 2021
and five digesters beginning in the first quarter of 2022, for a
planned total of 17 dairy digesters and a 36-mile biogas pipeline
in operation by the second quarter of 2022.
The common membership units of Aemetis Biogas LLC
are wholly owned by Aemetis, Inc.
About Aemetis
Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is
a renewable natural gas, renewable fuel and biochemicals company
focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of
innovative technologies that replace petroleum-based products
and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Founded in 2006,
Aemetis has completed Phase 1 and is expanding a California biogas
digester network and pipeline system to convert dairy waste gas
into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). Aemetis owns and
operates a 65 million gallon per year ethanol production facility
in California’s Central Valley near Modesto that supplies about 80
dairies with animal feed. Aemetis also owns and operates
a 50 million gallon per year production facility on the East Coast
of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined
glycerin for customers in India and Europe. Aemetis is
developing the Carbon Zero renewable jet and diesel fuel integrated
biorefineries in California to utilize distillers corn oil from
ethanol plants to produce low carbon intensity renewable jet and
diesel fuel using cellulosic hydrogen from waste orchard wood and
other negative carbon intensity biomass, and pre-extract cellulosic
sugars from the waste biomass to be processed into high value
cellulosic ethanol at the Keyes plant. Aemetis holds a
portfolio of patents and related technology licenses to produce
renewable fuels and biochemicals. For additional
information about Aemetis, please visit www.aemetis.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains forward-looking
statements, including statements regarding our assumptions,
projections, expectations, targets, intentions or beliefs about
future events or other statements that are not historical facts.
Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without
limitation, statements relating to the construction and operation
of the dairy digester and pipeline project in Central California,
the construction and operation of carbon capture and sequestration
projects in Central California, continued governmental programs and
support for renewable fuels, the continued compliance with and
qualification under governmental programs, and the ability to
access markets and funding to execute our biogas and carbon capture
business plans. Words or phrases such as “anticipates,”
“may,” “will,” “should,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,”
“intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” “projects,” “showing signs,”
“targets,” “view,” “will likely result,” “will continue” or similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements.These forward-looking statements are based on current
assumptions and predictions and are subject to numerous risks and
uncertainties. Actual results or events could differ
materially from those set forth or implied by such forward-looking
statements and related assumptions due to certain factors,
including, without limitation, competition in the ethanol,
biodiesel and other industries in which we operate, commodity
market risks including those that may result from current weather
conditions, financial market risks, customer adoption,
counter-party risks, risks associated with changes to federal
policy or regulation, and other risks detailed in our reports filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and in our
subsequent filings with the SEC. We are not obligated, and do not
intend, to update any of these forward-looking statements at any
time unless an update is required by applicable securities
laws.
External Investor Relations
Contact:Kirin SmithPCG Advisory
Group(646) 863-6519ksmith@pcgadvisory.com
Company Contact:Todd WaltzChief
Financial Officer(408) 213-0925twaltz@aemetis.com
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