Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — Aemetis Inc., a U.S. ethanol
producer, idled production at its plant in Keyes, California,
citing “unfavorable market conditions for corn ethanol” and
will upgrade the facility to also produce fuel from grain
sorghum.
The company shut down production Jan. 15 and will shift “a
significant portion” of the plant’s 60 million-gallon (227
million-liter) annual production capacity to handle sorghum,
Cupertino, California-based Aemetis said today in a filing.
The shift means the facility will qualify as a producer of
advanced biofuels, allowing the company to generate EPA-issued
credits that are trading at 46 cents a gallon, under rules
approved Dec. 17. Sorghum ethanol from facilities that run on
biogas fuel have less than half the total lifecycle greenhouse-
gas emissions as gasoline, according to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
“There’s no capital expenditure required, it’s mostly just
operational configuration,” Aemetis Chief Executive Officer
Eric McAfee said by telephone. The Keyes plant will run on
biogas and recycle waste heat, as required by the EPA to earn
the advanced biofuel designation.
“As soon as we can obtain the feedstock, we will be
operating,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at
aherndon2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
