Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
General
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis, Inc. (collectively with its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis referred to herein as “Aemetis,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us”) is an international renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company focused on the operation, acquisition, development, and commercialization of innovative technologies to produce low and negative carbon intensity renewable fuels that replace fossil-based products. We do this by building a local circular bioeconomy using agricultural products and waste to produce low carbon, advanced renewable fuels that reduce greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions and improve air quality. Our current operations include:
► California Ethanol - We own and operate a 65 million gallon per year capacity ethanol production facility in Keyes, California (the “Keyes Plant”). In addition to low carbon renewable fuel ethanol, the Keyes Plant produces Wet Distillers Grains (“WDG”), Distillers Corn Oil (“DCO”), and Condensed Distillers Solubles (“CDS”), all of which are sold as animal feed to local dairies and feedlots. The Keyes Plant also sells CO₂ that is converted to liquid and sold to food, beverage, and industrial customers. We are implementing several energy efficiency initiatives at the Keyes Plant focused on reducing operating costs and lowering the carbon intensity of our fuel.
► California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas - We produce Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) in central California. Our facilities consist of eight anaerobic digesters that produce biogas from dairy waste, a 26-mile biogas collection pipeline leading to a central upgrading hub, and an interconnect to inject the RNG into the utility natural gas pipeline for delivery to customers for use as transportation fuel. We are actively expanding our RNG production dairies, with several additional digesters under construction, agreements with a total of 43 dairies, and environmental review completed for an additional 24 miles of pipeline. We are also building our own RNG dispensing station, which is planned to begin operating in 2024.
► India Biodiesel - We own and operate a plant in Kakinada, India (“Kakinada Plant”) with a capacity to produce about 60 million gallons per year of high-quality distilled biodiesel from a variety of vegetable oil and animal waste feedstocks. The Kakinada Plant is one of the largest biodiesel production facilities in India. The Kakinada Plant can also distill the crude glycerin byproduct from the biodiesel refining process into refined glycerin, which is sold to the pharmaceutical, personal care, paint, adhesive, and other industries.
In addition, we are actively growing our business by seeking to develop or acquire new facilities, including the following key projects:
► Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Renewable Diesel – We are developing a sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel (“SAF/RD”) production plant to be located at the Riverbank Industrial Complex in Riverbank, CA. The plant is currently designed to produce 90 million gallons per year of SAF/RD from renewable oil and fats obtained from the Company’s other biofuels plants and other sources. The plant will use low-carbon hydroelectric electricity and renewable hydrogen that is generated within the plant’s own processes using byproducts of the SAF/RD production. In September 2023, we received approval of the Use Permit and CEQA for the development of the plant, and we are continuing with the engineering and other required development activities for the plant.
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► Carbon Capture and Underground Sequestration – We are developing Carbon Capture and Underground Sequestration (“CCUS”) facilities that will inject carbon dioxide captured from air emissions deep into the ground for geologic storage to reduce emissions to the atmosphere of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. In May 2023, the Company received a permit from the State of California to build a geologic characterization well that will provide information for the permitting and design of a CCUS well to be located in Riverbank, California. The Company plans to construct that well in 2024 and is at the same time is continuing engineering, permitting and other development activities for the sequestration well.
The Company’s current and planned businesses produce renewable fuels and reduce carbon emissions, while generating valuable Renewable Fuel Standard credits, California Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits, and federal tax credits.
Strategy
Key elements of our strategy include:
California Ethanol
Improve operating margins and cash flow by improving the energy efficiency of the Keyes Plant and continuing to seek alternative feedstocks that minimize cost and carbon emissions. Over the past 12 years, we have made several improvements to the Keyes plant that allow us to sell substantially all of our byproducts as commercial products into the local agricultural economy. For the last several years, our strategy has focused on further improvements to reduce the carbon emissions from the plant and to improve the plant's energy efficiency, both of which will lower the carbon intensity and increase the value of the ethanol we produce and sell. We are in the process of designing and procuring a mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) system that is expected to reduce natural gas consumption by 80% . We have installed and are in the final stages of commissioning a 1.9 megawatt solar microgrid with battery backup. In addition, we are continuing to seek out and evaluate potential feedstocks that will reduce cost and carbon intensity, with an emphasis on processes that use cellulosic feedstoc ks to augment or replace current feedstocks.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas
Leverage our position as an established dairy digester owner and operator to continue to build dairy digesters and connected pipeline to increase RNG production . In 2018, we benefited from our established relationship with more than 80 California Central Valley dairies to begin signing leases and raising funds to construct dairy digesters. We now have eight operating dairy digesters that produce biomethane, six additional digesters under construction, and contracts with a total of 43 dairies for supply of feedstock to current and future digesters. We are currently producing RNG at a rate of about 270,000 MMBtu per year, and we plan to continue to build digesters and expand our upgrading hub over the next several years to be able to produce about 1.6 million MMBtu/year of RNG.
India Biodiesel
Capitalize on recent policy changes by the Government of India. We plan to continue to pursue sales of biodiesel to Oil Marketing Companies (“OMC’s”) that are owned by the India government under the recently adopted cost-plus contract structure, as well as pursing sales to traditional bulk, fleet, industrial, retail, and transportation biodiesel markets in India. These sales are driven in part by the India government's 2022 update to its National Biofuels Policy that targets a blend of 5% biodiesel into fossil diesel.
Diversify our feedstocks. We have designed and upgraded our Kakinada Plant to be able to produce biodiesel from multiple feedstocks and plan to continue efforts to procure and process these diversified feedstocks where and when economically feasible. We have developed proprietary technology that allows us to use lower-cost Fatty Acid Distillate as a feedstock. We also now have the ability to use animal tallow to produce biodiesel, so we have begun procuring tallow. This allows us to acquire tallow that we may use for production while also pursuing opportunities for exports of tallow.
Develop and commercially deploy technologies to produce high-margin products. We plan to continue investing in the conversion of lower quality, waste oils into higher value biofuels in addition to biodiesel, including renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels. Additionally, we continue to evaluate improvements to the throughput capacity and efficiency of our production facilities. We plan to invest in those areas that allow for more efficient and higher throughput for the production of biodiesel and refined glycerin.
Other Initiatives
Leverage technology for the development and production of additional advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals. We continue to evaluate new technologies, develop technologies under our existing patents and conduct research and development to produce low and negative carbon intensity advanced biofuels from renewable feedstocks. Our objective is to continue to commercialize our portfolio of technologies and expand the adoption of these advanced biofuels and bio-chemicals technologies.
Leverage site control of our Keyes and Riverbank properties to construct production plants to produce low and negative carbon intensity products. Initiatives are underway to construct facilities that produce SAF and renewable diesel at our Riverbank location, and to generate LCFS and IRS 45Q credits by injecting CO₂ into wells at both our Keyes Plant and Riverbank locations.
Evaluate and pursue technology and facility acquisition opportunities . We intend to evaluate and pursue opportunities to acquire technologies and facilities that result in accretive value opportunities as financial resources and business prospects make the acquisition of these technologies, facilities, and processes advisable. In addition, we may also seek to acquire companies, enter into licensing agreements, or form joint ventures with companies that offer prospects for the adoption of technologies that would be accretive to earnings.
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2023 Highlights
California Ethanol
We produce five products at our California Ethanol plant: denatured fuel ethanol, wet distillers grains (WDG), distillers corn oil (DCO), condensed distillers solubles, and CO₂. The products reflect our primary production and the result of our strategy over the last decade to convert substantially all of the byproducts of the plant into marketable products. During 2023, we substantially installed a solar microgrid, which is expected to begin operation in early 2024, as a key step in electrifying and further reducing the carbon emissions from the plant. We shut down the Keyes plant in late 2022 due to high natural gas prices, used the shutdown period to install several improvements, and restarted the plant in June 2023; this shutdown period is the primary reason for the lower output in 2023. The following table shows our production and sales of ethanol and WDG in 2023 and 2022:
Years ended December 31,
2023 vs 2022 %
2023
2022
Change
Ethanol
Gallons Sold (in millions)
32.1
59.0
-45.6
%
Average Sales Price/Gallon
$
2.44
$
2.81
-13.2
%
WDG
Tons Sold (in thousands)
225
397
-43.3
%
Average Sales Price/Ton
$
97
$
128
-24.2
%
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas
During 2023, we delivered Renewable Natural Gas ("RNG") to the market through the regional utility gas pipeline. We used contractual relationships with third-party fuel stations to dispense gas for transportation use. In connection with dispensing for transportation use, we began generating and inventorying sellable credits under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (referred to as "D3 RINs") and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard ("LCFS"). We began selling D3 RINs in the third quarter of 2023 and began selling LCFS credits using the temporary carbon intensity pathway score of negative 150 in the first quarter of 2024. The individual dairy LCFS scores are under review by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). We are continuing to actively increase our RNG production by constructing additional dairy digesters and pipelines and by engaging in pre-construction development efforts for the contracting, permitting and financing of additional digesters to continue the growth. The following table shows our production and sales of dairy RNG in 2023 and 2022:
Years ended December 31,
2023 vs 2022 %
2023
2022
Change
Dairy Renewable Natural Gas
MMBtu external sales (in thousands)
194.2
8.4
2211.9
%
MMBtu stored as inventory (in thousands)
68.0
9.0
655.6
%
MMBtu intercompany sales (in thousands)
-
48.6
-100.0
%
India Biodiesel
We produce two primary products at the Kakinada Plant: biodiesel and refined glycerin manufactured by further processing of the crude glycerin that is a by‑product of biodiesel production. During 2023, we sold biodiesel to the government Oil Marketing Companies ("OMCs") Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, and Indian Oil Corporation. In the fourth quarter of 2023, we received a new 12-month allocation from the OMCs for the sale of 18,334 metric tons of biodiesel and we began executing this allocation. The following table shows our production and sales of biodiesel and refined glycerin in 2023 and 2022:
Years ended December 31,
2023 vs 2022 %
2023
2022
Change
Biodiesel
Metric tons sold (in thousands) (1)
60.5
17.7
241.8
%
Average Sales Price/Ton
$
1,232
$
1,526
-19.3
%
Refined Glycerin
Metric tons sold (in thousands) (1)
4.2
1.2
250.0
%
Average Sales Price/Ton
$
640
$
850
-24.7
%
(1)
1 metric ton is equal to 1,000 kilograms (approximately 2,204 pounds).
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Competition
California Ethanol – According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (the “EIA”), on January 1, 2023, there were approximately 187 commercial ethanol production facilities in the U.S. with combined production of approximately 17.7 billion gallons per year. The production of ethanol is a commodity-based business where producers compete on the basis of price. We sell ethanol into the California market. However, since there is insufficient production capacity in California to supply the state’s total fuel ethanol consumption ( in excess of 1.5 billion gallons annually), we compete with ethanol transported into California principally from Midwestern producers or imported from other countries, primarily Brazil. Similarly, our co-products, principally WDG and DCO, are sold into local California markets and compete with DDG and DCO imported into California as well as with alternative feed products.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas – Dairy renewable natural gas sold for transportation use currently competes with other renewable gas, fossil natural gas, and with fossil based products. The pricing for our sales of D3 RINs and LCFS credits fluctuates based on the supply and demand for those credits at any given time, and we compete with other credit producers that are participating in those markets.
India Biodiesel – Biodiesel sold as fuel competes primarily with the producers of petroleum diesel, consisting of the three OMCs and two private oil companies: Reliance Petroleum and Essar Oil, all of whom have significantly larger market shares for fossil diesel than we do for renewable diesel, and they control a significant share of the distribution network. These companies also purchase our product for blending with fossil-diesel and further sales to their customers. We compete primarily on the basis of price, quality and reliable delivery, since our plant can produce distilled biodiesel and has historically been a more reliable and high-quality supplier than some other biodiesel producers in India. With respect to crude and refined glycerin, we compete with other glycerin producers and refiners selling products into the personal care, paints and adhesive markets primarily on the basis of price and product quality.
Customers
California Ethanol – We sell 100% of the ethanol, WDG, CDO, and CDS we produce to J.D. Heiskell under the J.D. Heiskell Purchasing Agreement, and J.D. Heiskell resells the products to customers designated by us. We have designated a single fuel marketing company, Murex LLC ("Murex"), to purchase our ethanol, which it resells to fuel blenders. We sell the CO₂ gas from our fermenters through a dedicated pipeline to Messer Gas, which operates a commercial grade CO₂ production plant adjacent to our Keyes plant.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas – We deliver Renewable Natural Gas into the regional utility gas pipeline and sell it to transportation customers through a contractual relationship with a fuel dispensing company. We sell the environmental attributes through industry brokers.
India Biodiesel – We sell biodiesel to the three Government OMC’s. During 2023, our Oil Marketing Companies customers accounted for 95% of our biodiesel sales.
Pricing
California Ethanol – The market prices of ethanol, WDG, and DCO vary throughout the year. Ethanol pricing is influenced by local and national inventory and production levels, imported ethanol, corn prices, regulatory factors, gasoline demand, and government regulations related to renewable fuel volumes and allowed fuel mixes. Our ethanol price is based on quarterly sales contracts entered by Murex with local fuel blenders that typically based delivery prices on indexes of daily spot prices for ethanol. The price for WDG is influenced by the price of corn, the supply and price of dried distillers grains, and demand from the local dairy and feed markets and determined monthly pursuant to a marketing agreement with A.L. Gilbert an d is generally determined in reference to the local price of dried distillers grains and other comparable feed products.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas – The price for sales of RNG gas molecules is based on the market price of fossil based natural gas. The price we receive for sales of D3 RINs and LCFS credits are typically based on spot markets for those credits. Each of those credit markets is driven by regulatory factors that affect the quantity of credits needed by fossil fuel producers to achieve compliance, and also by the abundance of credits generated by renewable fuel producers.
India Biodiesel – During 2022, the formula for setting the OMC’s offer price was modified to allow biodiesel producers in India to begin production and supply of product at economically viable levels under these contracts, and this pricing mechanism continued in 2023. The pricing uses a "cost-plus" formula under which the current price for sales is based on the trailing average of several factors of production cost.
Raw Materials and Suppliers
California Ethanol – We procure corn as feedstock for the Keyes Ethanol Plant from J.D. Heiskell. The purchase price is based on spot market prices at the time we process the corn, plus transportation costs and fees.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas – We produce Renewable Natural Gas from biogas generated by anerobic digesters located on properties that we lease from dairy operators. We construct and own the dairy digesters and the pipeline that connects the digesters to our upgrading hub located at our California Ethanol plant. Our agreements with each dairy include both a land lease and an agreement by the dairy to supply their manure into our digesters, with payments from us to the dairy based primarily on herd size and the value of environmental attributes that we generate. Generally, these leases have a 25-year term with two five year options to renew.
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India Biodiesel – Our plant is currently capable of using a broad variety of feedstocks to produce biodiesel, which provides us with flexibility to purchase the least cost feedstocks available in the market. In 2023 and 2022, we produced a significant amount of our biodiesel from refined palm stearin, which was sourced locally. The byproduct of producing high fat RBD/crude palm stearin is palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), which we can also process into biodiesel. During 2021, we received approval from the Pollution Control Board of India to use refined animal tallow for production of biodiesel and we began procuring tallow. In addition to feedstock, the Kakinada Plant requires methanol and chemical catalysts for use in the biodiesel production process. These chemicals are also readily available and sourced from a number of suppliers surrounding the Kakinada Plant. We are not dependent on sole source or limited source suppliers for any of our raw materials or chemicals.
Commodity Risk Management Strategies
California Ethanol – The cost of corn and the price of ethanol are volatile and the correlation of the pricing of these commodities determines the profit margin at our Keyes Plant. We are, therefore, exposed to commodity price risk. We monitor prices daily to assess the overall impact of the pricing on profitability. We periodically explore and utilize methods of mitigating the volatility of our commodity prices through hedging strategies. We sold our WDG during 2022 on a month-to-month basis, however, we monitor and periodically sell on a quarterly basis when we believe longer term contracts allow us to better manage commodity and pricing risk. In 2023, we engaged in advance purchases of natural gas supply to obtain longer term benefits of favorable prices.
California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas – The prices for renewable natural gas, D3 RINs, and LCFS credits are volatile. We therefore are exposed to market price risk for our sales of RNG and associated environmental attributes. We mitigate risk by scaling our payments to dairy operators based, in part, upon the market price for credits in order to correlate our costs to market prices.
India Biodiesel – The cost of crude or refined palm stearin and the price of biodiesel are volatile and are generally uncorrelated. We therefore are exposed to ongoing and substantial commodity price risk at our Kakinada plant. Our risk management strategies are to (i) configure the Kakinada plant to be able to produce biodiesel from a wide variety of feedstocks and (ii) to produce biodiesel only when we believe we can generate positive gross margins and to idle the Kakinada Plant during periods of low or negative gross margins. Additionally, we currently sell our biodiesel primarily to OMCs using a cost-plus based pricing structure that correlates our product pricing with our feedstock and operating costs.
Research and Development
Our research and development efforts are targeted towards evaluating, and commercializing technologies for the production of SAF, renewable diesel fuel, cellulosic ethanol, and other renewable biofuels. The objective of this development activity is to identify and develop efficient conversion technologies that will use waste feedstocks to produce renewable biofuels and biochemicals that have low carbon intensity on a large-scale, commercial basis.
Patents and Trademarks
We hold several awarded patents in the United States. Our patents cover processes to break down plant biomass and a technology to convert carbon chain chemical structures. We intend to develop, maintain and secure further intellectual property rights and pursue new patents to expand upon our current patent base. As an operating company, we do not consider our business, as a whole, to be dependent on the ownership of patents, but we are seeking to develop and/or access them as means to allow our facilities to use lower cost or lower carbon sources of feedstock to produce renewable fuels. We currently have one issued trademark. We do not consider the success of our business, as a whole, to be dependent on these trademarks.
Environmental and Regulatory Matters
California Ethanol and California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas
We are subject to federal, state and local environmental laws, regulations and permit conditions, including those relating to the discharge of materials into the air, water and ground, the generation, storage, handling, use, transportation and disposal of hazardous materials, and the health and safety of our employees. These laws, regulations and permits may, from time to time, require us to incur significant capital costs. These include, but are not limited to, testing and monitoring plant emissions, and where necessary, obtaining and maintaining mitigation processes to comply with regulations. They may also require us to make operational changes to limit actual or potential impacts to the environment. A significant violation of these laws, regulations, permits or license conditions could result in substantial fines, criminal sanctions, permit revocations and/or facility shutdowns. In addition, environmental laws and regulations change over time, and any such changes, more vigorous enforcement policies or the discovery of currently unknown conditions may require substantial additional environmental expenditures.
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We are also subject to potential liability for the investigation and cleanup of environmental contamination at each of the properties that we own or operate and at off-site locations where we arrange for the disposal of hazardous wastes. If significant contamination is identified at our properties in the future, costs to investigate and remediate this contamination as well as costs to investigate or remediate associated damage could be significant. If any of these sites are subject to investigation and/or remediation requirements, we may be responsible under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (“CERCLA”) or other environmental laws for all or part of the costs of such investigation and/or remediation, and for damage to natural resources. We may also be subject to related claims by private parties alleging property damage or personal injury due to exposure to hazardous or other materials at or from such properties. While costs to address contamination or related third-party claims could be significant, based upon currently available information, we are not aware of any such material contamination or third-party claims. Based on our current assessment of the environmental and regulatory risks, we have not accrued any amounts for environmental matters as of December 31, 2023 and 2022. The ultimate costs of any liabilities that may be identified or the discovery of additional contaminants could materially adversely impact our results of operation or financial condition.
In addition, the production and transportation of our products may result in spills or releases of hazardous substances, which could result in claims from governmental authorities or third parties relating to actual or alleged personal injury, property damage, or damage to natural resources. We maintain insurance coverage against some, but not all, potential losses caused by our operations. Our general and umbrella liability policy coverage includes, but is not limited to, physical damage to assets, employer’s liability, comprehensive general liability, automobile liability and workers’ compensation. We do not carry environmental insurance. We believe that our insurance is adequate for our industry, but losses could occur for uninsurable or uninsured risks or in amounts in excess of existing insurance coverage. The occurrence of events which result in significant personal injury or damage to our property, natural resources or third parties that is not covered by insurance could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
Our air emissions are subject to the federal Clean Air Act, and similar state laws, which generally require us to obtain and maintain air emission permits for our ongoing operations as well as for any expansion of existing facilities or any new facilities. Obtaining and maintaining those permits requires us to incur costs, and any future more stringent standards may result in increased costs and may limit or interfere with our operating flexibility. These costs could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Because other ethanol manufacturers in the U.S. are and will continue to be subject to similar laws and restrictions, we do not currently believe that our costs to comply with current or future environmental laws and regulations will adversely affect our competitive position with other U.S. ethanol producers. However, because ethanol is produced and traded internationally, these costs could adversely affect us in our efforts to compete with foreign producers who are not subject to such stringent requirements.
New laws or regulations relating to the production, disposal or emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases may require us to incur significant additional costs with respect to plants that we build or acquire. We currently conduct our North American commercial activities exclusively in California. Climate change and reduction legislation is a topic of consideration by the U.S. Congress and California State Legislature, which may significantly impact the biofuels industry’s emissions regulations, as will the RFS, California’s LCFS, and other potentially significant changes in existing transportation fuels regulations.
India Biodiesel - We are subject to national, state and local environmental laws, regulations and permits, including with respect to the generation, storage, handling, use, transportation and disposal of hazardous materials, and the health and safety of our employees. These laws may require us to make operational changes to limit actual or potential impacts to the environment. A violation of these laws, regulations or permits can result in substantial fines, natural resource damages, criminal sanctions, permit revocations and/or facility shutdowns. In addition, environmental laws and regulations (and interpretations thereof) change over time, and any such changes, more vigorous enforcement policies or the discovery of currently unknown conditions may require substantial additional environmental expenditures.
Employees
As of December 31, 2023, we had a total of 20 5 full-time equivalent employees, including 16 our corporate offices, 44 at the Keyes Plant, 13 Aemetis Biogas employees, 3 at the Riverbank Industrial Complex, and 129 in India. We believe that our employees are highly skilled, and our success will depend in part upon our ability to retain our employees and attract new qualified employees, many of whom are in great demand. We have never had a work stoppage or strike, and no employees are presently represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We believe relations with our employees are positive.
Available Information
We file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We make available on our website under the “Investors” tab, free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such materials with or furnish them to the SEC. Our website address is www.aemetis.com . Our website address is provided as an inactive textual reference only, and the contents of that website are not incorporated in or otherwise to be regarded as part of this report. In addition, the SEC maintains an Internet site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us.
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