US-headed biofuels- and biochemicals producer and process developer Gevo Inc., has announced that it has restarted production operations at its advanced, renewable fuels production facility located in Luverne, Minnesota (MN). The Luverne Facility is expected to produce fuel-grade, renewable isobutanol (IBA).
The IBA produced will be used as a feedstock for Gevo to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable premium gasoline to fulfill existing sales contracts. These renewable hydrocarbons will be produced in Silsbee, Texas (TX) at the South Hampton Resources, Inc. hydrocarbon production facility.
Gevo also expects to utilize some of the IBA produced to develop certain IBA specialty markets.
Agri-Energy, LLC, Gevo’s wholly-owned subsidiary that owns the Luverne Facility, has rehired multiple former employees and is in the process of hiring an additional 11 employees to produce the IBA with the goal to have 30 full-time employees.
The team in Luverne has done an exceptional job restarting isobutanol operations safely and with a focus on continuous improvement for future growth. We appreciate the continued support we’ve received from the State of Minnesota and the City of Luverne and are happy to be increasing the number of high-quality jobs at the site. The ongoing production of IBA and building our team is just the first phase of what we want to do at Luverne. We see that Luverne has the potential to serve specialty markets other than jet and gasoline. We expect to announce more in the coming months as the rest of the plans come together, said Dr Paul Bloom, President of Agri-Energy.
The production operations at the Luverne Facility will allow Gevo to test and evaluate certain potential unit operations that may be incorporated into Gevo’s state-of-the-art Net-Zero 1 production facility that is expected to begin production in 2024 in Lake Preston, South Dakota (SD).
We are getting geared up for what will be the next stage of Gevo’s growth which is coming at us at an accelerated rate. We are leveraging our existing Luverne location to optimize the conversion of our isobutanol production to develop the standard in operating discipline for efficient and safe IBA production facilities. I like the option of being able to test unit operations that could help optimize and train people for Net-Zero 1. It will be critical for Net-Zero 1 to start up smoothly and the best way to do that is to do a good job training our people. I expect Luverne to provide some of that experience, commented Dr Patrick R. Gruber, CEO of Gevo.
