Aemetis acquires 24-acre site in Riverbank, California, for CCS injection well
Aemetis Inc. announced July 8 the purchase of 24 acres, known as “Parcel B” on the Riverbank Industrial Complex site, to develop a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) injection well.
The company plans to construct a characterization well to obtain required data and final injection well design information that will be used for the EPA Class VI CO2 injection well permit application for the sequestration of approximately 1 million metric tons per year of CO2.
“The Riverbank Parcel B land purchase secures the key site for 1 million annual tons of planned CO2 injection to reduce the carbon intensity of Aemetis biofuels and sequester CO2 from other California industrial and agricultural sources,” said Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “We have completed engineering and filed permits to drill a characterization well on the site as the next step in our CCS project, helping to close the gap on essential climate mitigation actions that can be accomplished today.”
According to Aemetis, its carbon sequestration project has attracted world-class companies in the engineering, design, and construction of facilities for CO2 compression and injection.
After several years of negotiations and approvals, in December Aemetis signed an agreement with the city of Riverbank to purchase the 125-acre former military base in Riverbank, California, known as the Riverbank Industrial Complex. The agreement leased the entire 125-acre facility to Aemetis until U.S. Army and other approvals are obtained for the transfer of site ownership to Aemetis.
The purchase of the 24-acre Parcel B is the first land acquisition completed under the agreement.
The Riverbank facility features 710,000 square feet of existing industrial and commercial buildings with more than 30 existing commercial tenants, a four-mile railroad loop with a 120-railcar storage capacity, and a 20-megawatt onsite electric substation with 100 percent low-carbon hydroelectric power.
The Riverbank facility has an approved Environmental Impact Report for development and has received more than $72 million of federal funding for facility upgrades and remediation since being decommissioned as a U.S. Army base primarily focused on ammunition production.
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.
Aemetis owns and operates a 65 million gallon per year (mgy) 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 mgy production facility on the East Coast of India producing high-quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India and Europe.
The company is developing the Carbon Zero sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel fuel biorefineries in California to utilize distillers corn oil and other renewable oils to produce low carbon-intensity renewable jet and diesel fuel using cellulosic hydrogen from waste orchard and forest wood, while pre-extracting cellulosic sugars from the waste wood to be processed into high-value cellulosic ethanol at the Keyes plant. Aemetis holds a portfolio of patents and exclusive technology licenses to produce renewable fuels and biochemicals.
