Gevo continues lining up partners for commercialization of SAF from ethanol

Gevo Inc. has lined up two major deals in the past week. On Oct. 12, the company announced an agreement with technology provider Axens North America Inc. forming a strategic alliance to accelerate commercialization of U.S. ethanol-to-jet projects.

“We are convinced that Gevo’s breakthrough approach to scientifically tracking and accounting for carbon, emissions, and sustainability across the whole of the business system is a true differentiator that will enable growth of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production via carbohydrate-derived alcohols,” said Jean Sentenac, CEO of Axens.

A week prior to its announcement about the partnership with Axens, Gevo made public its engagement of Kiewit Energy Group Inc. to lead the front-end engineering design (FEED) of its “Net-Zero 1” project in Lake Preston, South Dakota. The project is expected to produce 45 million gallons a year of SAF and renewable gasoline. Gevo stated it also expects to hire Kiewit Energy Group as its engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, once the FEED phase is complete.

“Working with a firm like this, we expect to reduce execution risk on the Net-Zero 1 Project while increasing our capability to build out multiple net-zero plants as the market demands,” said Chris Ryan, president and chief operating officer of Gevo.

In September, Chevron announced its intention to invest in one or more plants with Gevo.