Gevo awarded new patent for alcohol to renewable diesel, SAF

Gevo Inc. has received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a process that encompasses upgrading ethanol and biobased alcohols into renewable diesel and SAF.

The process defined in the patent—no. 11,078,433 and titled, “Conversion of Mixtures of C2-C8 Olefins to Jet Fuel and/or Diesel Fuel in High Yield from Bio-Based Alcohols”—establishes a new technology and route to hydrocarbons that did not previously exist, according to Gevo, creating an opportunity to diversify ethanol production to help meet increasing demand for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). “We have been working on the conversion of alcohols into hydrocarbons for many years,” said Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo. “The technology in this patent is different from what others have done in that it provides high yields of quality diesel fuel, and can also produce SAF if we want.” Gruber added that while ethanol is a good feedstock, work must be done to further decarbonize it.

Paul Bloom, chief carbon and innovation officer of Gevo, said, “This patent covers technology that has the flexibility to make quality renewable diesel fuel or jet fuel from ethanol in a simple catalytic process. Producing renewable diesel makes sense in some regions of the world, whereas in others, producing high levels of jet fuel might be the right economic answer. There is a lot of overlap in the production technology used for the conversion of ethanol or isobutanol to hydrocarbons, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we would broaden our scope.”