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Aemetis, Inc. (AMTX)

Q2 2023 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 3, 2023

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Aemetis Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Review Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Todd Waltz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Aemetis, Inc. Mr. Waltz, you may begin.

Todd Waltz

Management

Thank you, Kelly. Welcome to the Aemetis's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Review Conference Call. Joining us for the call today is Eric McAfee, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis; and Andy Foster, President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels and Aemetis Biogas. We suggest reading our website at aemetis.com to review today's earnings press release, the Aemetis Corporate and Investor Presentations, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, recent press releases and previous earnings conference calls. The presentation for the call today is available for review or download on the Investors section of aemetis.com website. Before we begin our discussion today, I'd like to read the following disclaimer statement. During today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements with respect to our future stock performance, plans, opportunities and expectations with respect to financing activities and the execution of our business plan. These statements must be considered in conjunction with the disclosures and cautionary warnings that appear in our SEC filings. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements made on this call involve risks and uncertainties and that future events may differ materially from the statements made. For additional information, please refer to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are posted on our website and are available from the company without charge. Our discussion on the call today will include a review of non-GAAP measures as a supplement to financial results based on GAAP because we believe these non-GAAP measures serve as a proxy for the company's sources or uses of cash during the periods presented. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 which is available on our website. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income or…

Eric McAfee

Management

Thank you, Todd. Aemetis is focusing on producing below zero carbon intensity products by growing and diversifying our existing dairy renewable natural gas and ethanol businesses in California and expanding our biodiesel and tallow feedstock business in India. We are executing on a five year plan to grow to $2 billion of annual revenues and more than $600 million of annual positive cash flow. We invite investors to review the company presentation on the homepage of the Aemetis website. The Aemetis five-year plan includes growth in our five business segments to produce sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel, biodiesel, renewable natural gas and low carbon ethanol, along with carbon sequestration of the CO2 produced by these businesses in California. Byproducts of these businesses include distillers corn oil in California and refined tallow from India. So we plan to use as feedstocks for our SAF and RD production facilities, as well as using our dairy renewable natural gas to replace diesel while trucking our feedstocks and finished products, reducing fuel cost, carbon intensity and air emissions. We already have achieved many of the significant milestones for the current year of the five year plan, though several important events are scheduled over the next few months. In the India biodiesel business, $33.5 million of biodiesel contracts were fulfilled by Aemetis for the three India government oil marketing companies during the second quarter of 2023 generating $5.1 million of positive adjusted EBITDA during the second quarter. We are now shipping new OMC orders for the third quarter, we are seeing steady improvement in the speed of the OMC procurement processes and note the positive impact of cost plus pricing that's now being used by the OMCs to purchase biodiesel. The India business is debt free and now generally funds its own operation without…

Andy Foster

Management

Thanks, Eric. Late last year, we closed our first USDA $25 million financing and just last week our second USDA $25 million financing utilizing the Renewable Energy for America program. Allow me to quickly recap the Aemetis biogas RNG Q1 project milestones. We completed the installation of 40 miles of biogas pipeline. We completed commissioning of the biogas-to-RNG upgrading facility. We completed commissioning of the RNG interconnection unit with PG&E's Pipeline. We now have seven fully operating digesters and will be constructing eight additional digesters this year. These 15 dairy digesters are expected to generate approximately 400,000 Mmbtu per year of renewable natural gas. We recently received our default negative 150 carbon intensity pathway approval for four dairies to begin generating LCFS credits and expect two more approvals in the coming weeks. While we await the approvals of our provisional LCFS pathways for credit generation, we are storing our RNG underground and carrying it as inventory until we deliver it to customers. With the dairy RNG business now operating seven digesters, and with eight more dairies fully funded and underway. The approval of CARB LCFS pathways for each digester will significantly increase revenues for RNG that is already being produced. We are working diligently to obtain the provisional LCFS carbon intensity pathways as quickly as possible, which we expect to be in the negative 415 CI range, resulting in significantly more revenue than the negative 150 default pathway that we are currently using, while the full pathway applications are in process. Operationally, we're focusing on executing the construction of additional dairy digesters to fill our 40 miles biogas pipeline, the centralized biogas-to-RNG production facility, and the PG&E interconnection unit, which are all currently on operating. Let's briefly discuss progress at our Keyes California ethanol production plant. During Q1 and a…

Eric McAfee

Management

Thank you, Andy. Let's review our growing biodiesel tallow feedstock refining and glycerin refining businesses in India. The national biofuels policy in India was updated in 2022 and now is being implemented to achieve a 5% blend of biodiesel that is equal to about 1.25 billion gallons per year. During the second quarter of 2023, the three government oil marketing companies issued tender offers to purchase biodiesel under a feedstock plus pricing formula that was used very successfully last fall to bring biodiesel plants into production. The tender offers were for a delivery during the second quarter of 2023. Aemetis selected specific delivery locations and amounts then received supply contracts for about $34 million of biodiesel to be delivered during April, May and June of this year. The cost plus pricing formula used by the oil marketing companies is expected to be the ongoing format for sales to the OMCs. We expect the formula to be a successful mechanism for the rapid growth of biodiesel production in India due to the predictability of the pricing formula. Our plant in India is uniquely situated to benefit from the successful feedstock plus pricing mechanism in India, since importing biodiesel or renewable diesel is not allowed under India law. And Aemetis owns and operates the largest production capacity biodiesel plant in India. We're negotiating the sale of tallow feedstock that's refined by our tallow pretreatment unit in India for export to the U.S. for the production of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. Since our India subsidiary has no debt and the 50 million gallon per year biodiesel plant, the 50 million gallon per year tallow refining facility, and the glycerin plant are fully constructed. We are well positioned for profitable operations as we scale of operations to meet OMC requirements for biodiesel…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Mr. McAfee. We will now be connecting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Your first question is coming from Manav Gupta with UBS. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Manav Gupta

Analyst

Eric, you have a closer visibility with CARB than probably anybody else. You know those people very well and they listen to you. They take your inputs. Help us understand. I mean, we hear that CARB wants to fix this, that the price is too low right now for new development. What are the next milestones we should look for Eric when we -- as this process unfolds? And when can we expect some kind of firm commitment from their side which helps the higher price of carbon to move higher and benefit Aemetis in multiple ways?

Eric McAfee

Management

What do we have, Andy for that?

Andy Foster

Management

Hey, Manav. Good question. I think we're sort of in the interim period where CARB is obviously rescoping the LCFS program, a pretty significant undertaking that started last fall, and they're hoping to have wrapped up this fall. They certainly sent a lot of very positive indications about the direction they're going. But currently they're doing things like working on the Tier 1 calculator, which they've sent out to all the various stakeholders to receive comment and feedback and any kind of insights from industry and other groups to help them as they start to finalize the rules that will be a part of this new LCFS. So I think in that period of time, Manav, it's natural that there's some level of kind of wait and see and we did see a nice little run up in the LCFS price about a month ago. I think there's a record number of credits that are out there, which obviously, that's not helping the price. So I think our view is that take the long-term view of your investment or the marketplace and how we're building our business. Probably seeing improvement in the first quarter hopefully, they'll send some more clear signals by the end of this year. But in the first quarter of next year, when they begin the reauthorization and the implementation of the new LCFS, we know that they're going to increase the requirements of the program. We know that for a fact. They've stated it publicly. They've set up to 48%. So unfortunately we're in that kind of middle zone right now where everybody's sort of waiting for this to happen. A lot of projects are being built out. As you know, CARB has a huge backlog of applications that are sitting with temporary or default pathways. So there's a lot of projects that want to come online, a lot of projects that are looking to actively participate in the program that are sort of in the queue right now waiting for CARB to get through those applications where we have six of them ourselves in there and we're meeting with CARB and having good open dialog with them about how we can help them as an industry, how we can help them improve that process. Because I think once people start to see these projects really flow through the pipeline, that's also going to have a very positive effect because the State of California needs to be mindful of their obligations and meeting their own goals. And the renewable natural gas business is really at the front of that line in terms of helping them advance the program and meeting their obligations under the LCFS. So long answer. I apologize for being windy, but I hope that gives you some insight.

Manav Gupta

Analyst

Perfect. I'm going to keep it to the macro again. Looks like the EPA also came out and with their RVO is going to be very supportive of renewable natural gas. Maybe not as supportive of Renewable Diesel, but definitely very supportive of renewable natural gas. And we have seen the price of D3 respond to that. So any thoughts on EPA being supportive of RNG? Maybe it was not as supportive earlier and EV RINs was a little tricky area, but looks like now they want to grow RNG and they want you to use it in the transportation vehicles.

Eric McAfee

Management

That's right. And I think they received a lot of input from industry, to be honest with you, over the last few months, we work with the Renewable Gas RNG Coalition and other groups, giving a lot of feedback, submitted a lot of information to the EPA and it appears that they were listening. So yes, we're happy with the developments there and hope that they continue to show strong support for renewable fuels in general because despite the lofty goals and aspirations for EVs, which we certainly we support EVs, but there's an aggressive timeline that everybody's looking at in the one sector that can deliver and has proven it can deliver is renewable fuels.

Manav Gupta

Analyst

Thank you so much, guys. And congrats on all the positive developments that are happening at Aemetis.

Eric McAfee

Management

Thanks, Manav. Appreciate you joining the call.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is coming from Derrick Whitfield with Stifel. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

Thanks and good morning, Eric and team.

Eric McAfee

Management

Hey, Derrick.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

For my first question, I actually wanted to pick it up with where Manav left it there on macro, but really focus more on Riverbank. In light of the less favorable D4 RVO announcement, could you update us on your latest thoughts on the macro environment for RD and SAF investments? And separately, could you comment on your degree of flexibility that you will have in your operation and supply agreements to produce and allocate production to SAF?

Eric McAfee

Management

Absolutely. Let's take the second one first. We invested, it's about an extra $30 million investment to use the Haldor Topsoe HydroFlex process. What HydroFlex allows is we can run the plant 100% renewable diesel. Any percentage of SAF all the way up to 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel. The yield is less on aviation fuel. But the economics would drive the decisions of what percentage of SAF and RD we produce. Currently, we've done our contracts with 50% RD and 50% SAF. So let's then talk about what would drive our decisions. The D4 RIN and the D5 RIN under the renewable volume obligation of 2023, '24 and '25 is being discouraged by the EPA. They have set targets that are below the known volume that are coming into the market and frankly, the signal was don't produce as much biodiesel as you're producing now and just kind of trying to play the magic of go make SAF happen. But by the way, don't produce as much renewable diesel as you plan to either. So it's essentially a discouragement signal from the EPA for building renewable diesel plants which is the kind of plant that makes an SAF molecule. So there's a contradiction between the White House's 3 billion gallon 2030 target for Sustainable Aviation Fuel production and an RVO that is below the current capacity to produce existing biodiesel and renewable diesel. Now, our response to that is that we believe people will be discouraged. Well, in any market in which your other producers are discouraged means that the amount of capacity they produce is less. But I tell you, the people that are not discouraged are our customers in the SAF business. The airline industry consumes about 100 billion gallons per year worldwide of aviation fuel. There will…

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

That's great, and I completely agree with you on the SAF macro backdrop. With my follow-up, I know that you were expecting your first ITC to close in late Q2 or early Q3. Could you offer your latest thoughts on timing of when it will close and note if there are any meaningful remaining hurdles to clear?

Eric McAfee

Management

Yes, current guidance is in the next month or so. I feel very comfortable that as of today, that's conservative guidance and there's been a team working on this of at least a half dozen law firms and accounting firms and a bunch of other people, consultants, et cetera for many months. And we're reaching the end of that process. So we're looking forward to a $50 million plus closing. We believe it will certainly be one of the largest ever done in the United States, maybe the first large transaction in the United States. So dealing in that environment of uncertainty has required the work of a lot of industry leading tax lawyers and accountants. And so I think we've gotten that guidance in place. I would thank the IRS for their June 21 guidance, 264 pages. Tremendous amount of work by the IRS, and it was very, very helpful in bringing this transaction to a near close where we're at today and hopefully closing here in the next month or so.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

That's great. Thanks for your time.

Eric McAfee

Management

Thank you, Derrick.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is coming from Jordan Levy with Truist. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Jordan Levy

Analyst

Hey all and appreciate all the details. Maybe just on the tallow business in India. Just curious if we could get a little more detail on how you expect that to progress. I think you discussed that you're in negotiations for some space in California ports and that sort of thing. So anything there on timing or realizing of revenues out of that?

Eric McAfee

Management

We are very well positioned for production in India. That's not really been our constraint. The constraint has been tankage at the ports. Tallow requires a heated tank and then the actual carbon intensity pathway in California is about a six month process to get the tallow in the plant to do the 90 days of testing and all the other things required for that process. So we are steadily moving forward and I feel very solid about the ability to get the tankage in place. We're actually in contract process there. And then in terms of customers, we have pretty much every renewable diesel producer in California or our neighboring state, Nevada, who are excellent candidates for this. And so we have one particular refinery that is looking to take all of our capacity. So we do not have a projected shipment date yet, but we hope to have that in place by the end of this quarter and be looking at revenues in the fourth quarter. Shipments, of course, from India take a little time and then you've got to post it through the storage tank into our customer before it's really revenue. But we are targeting to have fourth quarter revenue and we'll see whether that flow starts. We of course, if we sell the one customer with pretty much all of our capacity would be looking to scale this up rather quickly. And so really the scale up speed is what we're focusing on. And I think once we get the tankage in place, we'll be in a much better position to start the shipments.

Jordan Levy

Analyst

Thanks for that. Maybe shifting over to the RNG side. Just curious now that you have seven digesters online. You've built a lot of scale on that business. How has the reception, I guess been from the dairy owners in that area? Either the ones that are already part of the business or that you're looking to add on to the business and what's your confidence level? And I think the 65 dairy target in the five year plan?

Eric McAfee

Management

Andy spent a lot of time with dairy. So Andy, why don't you give us an update on that?

Andy Foster

Management

Derrick, I think over the last three years we've seen a real kind of evolution in this process where when we first started, frankly, I first started talking to dairies back in the summer of 2018 and I was sort of like, what are you talking about? To now going in and them asking us questions about the LCFS price and they've become a lot more sophisticated. So I would say that I think most of the dairies that we are targeting, all of the dairies that we are targeting certainly know that this is something they need to move forward with. I think the biggest obstacle for everybody in this business right now is just the fact that the dairy business as a whole is not doing well. Margins in the price of milk is low. And so our approach has always been to look at well capitalized dairies, dairies that can sustain these peaks and valleys. It's not altogether too different from the ethanol business, honestly, when you have these peaks and valleys from a margin perspective. So I think the folks that we're dealing with are nobody is happy right now because it has nothing to do with RNG, it has everything to do with the fact that their milk price is not very great. I've heard some encouraging signs about where that's going, so I bring that into the equation because while RNG is a central business point for us and we come into work every single day beating on RNG and thinking about RNG from a dairy producer perspective, it's the last thing they're thinking about. And so our challenge there is just trying to keep people focused and hey, we're moving forward. We're paying for all these projects at their facilities and trying to…

Jordan Levy

Analyst

That's really helpful perspective. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is coming from Matthew Blair with Tudor, Pickering, Holt. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Matthew Blair

Analyst

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions here. First one is on the India biodiesel segment. Looks like EBITDA profitability per ton was around 200, which is about half of what it was in the back half of last year. Could you talk about what drove that number lower? And is that a good number going forward or what are your expectations for future profitability?

Andy Foster

Management

The margins in the second quarter reflected higher feedstock prices. We had sort of a global increase. If you track soy prices, for example, for renewable diesel, you would have seen that. We think the margins are sustainable where they are today. But we have some opportunity to expand margins using a proprietary technology we developed over the last half decade or more in India, which allows us to use lower cost feedstocks and generate the same high quality biodiesel we currently produce. And we generate about a 10% additional margin when we use that lower cost feedstock, and about the same yields, actually. So we are going to increasingly have up to a third of our revenues be from this lower cost stock using our proprietary technology. We've expanded the capital investment in that activity over the last roughly four months and have quadrupled that capacity. And so we expect that to have an impact increasingly in third quarter and then as we go into the fourth quarter and into next year. I do expect up to a third of our revenues to have that lower cost structure.

Matthew Blair

Analyst

Sounds good. And then on the California Ethanol segment, could you help us understand what drove the $4 million EBITDA loss in Q2, was that due to like restart costs or maybe you had to work through higher cost inventory? And as you look into Q3, do you think the EBITDA will be positive for this quarter?

Andy Foster

Management

On Q2, it was restart. We only really operated for one-third of the quarter, and the combination of yields and just some one-time charges around contracts we had with customers, et cetera, really led to the EBITDA. In fact, there are -- it was not a large amount from any single thing, but you just add up to some smaller things related to the start. And so we see if these is one-time startup related costs. In terms of Q3, margins going into Q3 were much better. We're still looking to get our production to be at full maximum and take full advantage of the current margin environment. We're about one month into Q3, and we'll see how corn does. But corn has shown a low price trend, let's say, and unless there's some strange weather effect, that appears to be the market condition that we're in. Really good questions around ethanol, I personally am looking for E15 to increasingly be part of the discussion we have over the next year or two. E15 is taking our national consumption of ethanol from a 10% blend, which is roughly 14 billion gallons, to over 20 billion gallons. Well, the entire production capacity in the entire United States is only 17 billion gallons, of which we export a little less than 2 billion gallons. So E15, a 15% blend of ethanol accepted in 49 states by the way, it's not currently allowed in California. California is a 90% petroleum gasoline mandate. And so we are working closely with our friends at CARB to complete a multi-year process to get 15% blend approved in California. We're the only state that can set our own blending rules by the way, and that would in California alone be over 700 million gallons a year of new ethanol demand in a state that already consumes over 1.2 billion gallons. So we're looking at some external realities of E15 being allowed at all 50 states as being the really underlying demand driver. Last little point I would make is that we sell our ethanol for roughly $2.50 or $2.60 a gallon, but then we turn around and across the street, we pay $4.50 to buy it back. It's a 10% blend, but we're paying $2 a gallon more for it. And so there are significant margin opportunities in the Ethanol business simply by solving the supply demand curve, and that's what E15 is doing gradually over the next year or two.

Matthew Blair

Analyst

Sounds good. Thanks for your comments.

Andy Foster

Management

Sure. Thank you, Matthew.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is coming from Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Thank you. Hi, guys. So with respect to the Keyes plants, Eric, I mean, are we running at full capacity for the third quarter now?

Eric McAfee

Management

We're going to be by the end of the third quarter for sure. Really August and September. July was another ramp up, as I mentioned, June, July were a ramp up months. So August and September, we expect to be at full capacity.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Understood. Okay, thank you for that. And then the eight digesters targeted for this year, will they be completed and brought online this year, or will that spill into 2024?

Eric McAfee

Management

We have, what half of those under construction?

Andy Foster

Management

Yes, there's probably five of those. Four or five of those that are currently under construction. We may have one or two of those completed by the end of the year, but I'd say kind of a safe timeline for you to think about is by the end of Q1 of next year we'll have all eight of those completed in online.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Thank you.

Andy Foster

Management

But again, they're sort of sequential, and we should have a few of those will be online this year I think. It gets weird with what kind of winter are we going to have? And if we have a winter like we did last year, it might slow some things down, but by and large, we're pretty far along on a few of those. So we'll definitely have two to three more that should be completed by the end of this year.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

And the size that are operating guys, are they running as expected? Are they running at full capacity, et cetera?

Eric McAfee

Management

Yes, we've actually been -- we've been very happy with our operational uptime and performance. It's exceeded our expectations, honestly. And production is because these are ambient temperature digesters, production is really dependent on the weather. The weather in California this winter or this summer has been slightly cooler than normal, so that has a little bit of an impact. But as far as the nuts and bolts of how these things are running, we've been very, very happy with the performance of the equipment and the pipeline and the RNG upgrading facility and everything that's associated with this project. We've been very happy with the operational uptime and efficiency.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Thank you. And then with respect to the…

Eric McAfee

Management

Kelly, I think we lost Amit.

Andy Foster

Management

Yes.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Hello, can you hear me?

Eric McAfee

Management

Yes, we can hear you now. Try it again.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Yes, so I was just trying to go back to the tallow feedstock from India, the permitting and the qualification, et cetera, that is required. Is this a one-time thing or will it be required for each shipment that takes place?

Eric McAfee

Management

Good question. It's actually a one-time thing. It's the carbon intensity of the fuel produced when tallow is used from a new region. In this case, from India. So there's some default pathways, but then you can get a much better score if you actually show for example, we run a 100% biomass energy in our plant in India. The underlying default has coal as the electricity source, and so we get a lower carbon intensity score than the default. So it's sort of like our biogas business. We're running along at a negative 150 default pathway. We want to move to a negative 415 provisional pathway, which is a word that means our projects pathway. Does India has the same kind of dynamic? It's quicker, because it's a Tier 1 pathway. It's not a Tier 2, which Tier 2 is more project specific. Tier 1 is more of a standardized process, but it still takes you six months to get done.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Understood. Just last one, again, on the India side. For modeling purposes, should we assume similar levels of production and shipment in India that we saw in Q2?

Eric McAfee

Management

For Q3?

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Yes, for Q3.

Eric McAfee

Management

I would take it down a little bit. We're doing multiple procurement cycles. They've been expanding the number of locations we're shipping to. And so it's not the entire quarter we've contracted this point in time, but we're two-thirds of the way there. And as over the course of August and September, we'll be looking for additional orders. So we'll probably be press releasing sometime next month as we get the full order for the quarter done. But what they did was they moved quickly, which is what we wanted, so we could continue production and keep on going in at July and August that meant that they haven't quite gotten all their tenders done for the September timeframe. So we'll probably put out press release once we have good visibility on the quarter.

Amit Dayal

Analyst

Okay. Thank you, guys. That's all I have. Appreciate it.

Eric McAfee

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is coming from Ryan Todd with Piper Sandler. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Ryan Todd

Analyst

Thanks. Maybe just one for me. I mean Congratulations on the continued progress on digesters and the RNG side of the business. You're still building gas and storage at this point. Can you maybe walk through your latest thoughts on potential timing of gas monetization? What do you need to see to start monetizing gas and maybe timing or progress on LCFS pathway approval?

Eric McAfee

Management

Sure. We have our default pathway approved for four of our digesters. We have two more we expect to get here in the next few weeks. So we'll have six of our digesters that can generate revenue at the negative 150 timeframe. There's a requirement that we have to ship not in the quarter it's produced, not in the next quarter, but in the quarter after that. We have to actually ship the product in order to get LCFS credits. We can't just let it sit in the ground for 18 months, which very possibly might be exactly what we want to do in order to maximize our LCFS revenue. So we will be showing some revenues as we meet these minimum thresholds. But we are working diligently with the CARB team to get our provisional pathway. Negative 415 is what we estimate to be completed. And then we'll be able to ship everything that's in the ground in that quarter and the quarter afterwards. So we are definitely meeting the minimum requirements. And in Q3, we'll be showing revenue as a result of that in Q4, as we have to do a look back to the earlier quarters. But I can tell you our business model would be just leave it in the ground until it's negative 415 and we're working diligently to get that approval in place as quickly as possible.

Ryan Todd

Analyst

Great. Thanks, Eric.

Eric McAfee

Management

Sure. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is coming from Dave Storms with Stonegate Capital. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Dave Storms

Analyst

Good afternoon. Just two quick ones for me on the dairy digester side. With the additional $75 million in funding expected to close this year, can we just do simple math and say that translates to about 21 new digesters being funded?

Eric McAfee

Management

That's approximately correct. The size of the dairies will have an impact on that. So it's a range. It'll be somewhere in the 18, which would be six per funding to 22. So I would probably plug in 20 and then true it up. As you see press releases come out, because we'll announce how many dairies are in each project.

Dave Storms

Analyst

Perfect. And just following on to that. Is there a critical mass of dairy digesters that you'll hit where you'll have to extend that pipeline?

Eric McAfee

Management

We're essentially extending the pipeline for every dairy that's just think about as having a main trunk line in place. And if the dairy is a half mile away, we'll run a pipeline out to them. The good news is it's very quick and revolution. So it's not a material part of the budget.

Andy Foster

Management

Well, the only thing I would add is that. So Eric is right on track in terms of what we would call sort of the legs to the dairies. But with as many dairies as we're building out, it ends up turning out to be about another 20 miles worth of pipeline, not all at one-time, so it's now you can expect -- you're not going to see a big chunk of money all at one-time. But it's -- as we build out these dairies, when you look back and everything's completed, it's going to be not 40 miles of pipeline, but closer to 60.

Eric McAfee

Management

Yes.

Dave Storms

Analyst

Understood. That's very helpful. Thank you.

Eric McAfee

Management

Thank you, Dave.

Andy Foster

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

There are no additional questions in queue at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for their closing remarks.

Eric McAfee

Management

Thank you, Kelly. And thank you to Aemetis shareholders, analysts and others for joining us today. Please review the Aemetis company presentation that is posted on the homepage of the Aemetis website. We look forward to talking with you about participating in the growth opportunities at Aemetis. Todd?

Todd Waltz

Management

Thank you for attending today's Aemetis earnings conference call. Please visit the investors section of the Aemetis website where we'll post a written version and an audio version of this Aemetis earnings review and business update. Kelly?

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.