Gevo restarts Minnesota plant to provide renewable isobutanol feedstock for SAF

Gevo Inc. announced it has restarted its production facility in Luverne, Minnesota, to produce renewable isobutanol, which will be used as feedstock in Silsbee, Texas, at South Hampton Resources Inc. for upgrading to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and premium gasoline to fulfill existing sales contracts. The company idled the plant in March 2020 during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The company says operations in Luverne will allow testing and evaluation of “certain potential unit operations” that may be incorporated into its “Net-Zero 1” project, which Gevo expects to begin production in 2024 in Lake Preston, South Dakota.

“Ongoing production of renewable isobutanol and building our team is just the first phase of what we want to do at Luverne,” said Paul Bloom, president of Agri-Energy LLC, the wholly owned subsidiary of Gevo that owns the Luverne plant. “We see that Luverne has potential to serve specialty markets other than jet and gasoline. We expect to announce more in coming months as the rest of the plans come together.”

According to Gevo, Agri-Energy has rehired former employees of the Luverne facility and plans to hire another 11, with the goal of having 30 full-time staff there.