Gevo resumes isobutanol production

Gevo, Inc. announced that it has resumed commercial production of isobutanol at its Luverne, Minn., U.S.A. plant in single train mode, successfully utilizing its proprietary Gevo Integrated Fermentation Technology® (GIFT®).
Production was temporarily halted last year due to microbial contamination issues at the facility.
“We plan to be producing isobutanol and operating throughout the rest of this year. While we are currently operating a single production train, we plan on bringing all of our fermenters and GIFT® systems online in the third and fourth
quarters, testing run rates, then ramping up production and sales in 2013 and 2014,” said GEVO CEO Patrick Gruber.
The Gevo plant is currently the only plant that produces isobutanol from renewable materials. It uses corn as feedstock. Gevo will sell the isobutanol it produces, using it for market development in the specialty chemicals market, the specialty oxygenated fuel blendstock market, and as a building block to make jet fuel and chemical products such as paraxylene for PET used in the production of bottles and fibers.
The company is headquartered in Englewood, Colo., U.S.A.