“We are pleased with the progress to date in our initial startup campaign,” said CEO Patrick Gruber, Ph.D. “We’ve shown that we can successfully ferment isobutanol in large (250,000 gallon) commercial fermenters, isolate the product and get it into tanks and railcars. The learnings gained in achieving this milestone are enormous and further derisk our technology. I have to give credit to our team at Luverne, including our employees, the ICM team and all of our contractors for their hard work in overcoming so many obstacles to get this far in such a short period of time.”
“The initial isobutanol we produced is what we’d expect from startup. We will use some of the isobutanol produced at Luverne to further shake down our finishing systems. We will also prepare some isobutanol for shipment to customers such as Sasol or others.”
“As previously described, we plan to be in the start-up/learning mode of operation most of 2012. We still have a lot of work to do: improve plant reliability, improve yields, improve throughput and improve quality. With any new technology there is a lot to learn. We have made great progress so far, and I expect our team to continue to deliver – knocking down issues as they arise.”
About Gevo
Gevo is converting existing ethanol plants into biorefineries to make renewable building block products for the chemical and fuel industries. The Company plans to convert renewable raw materials into isobutanol and renewable hydrocarbons that can be directly integrated on a “drop in” basis into existing chemical and fuel products to deliver environmental and economic benefits. Gevo is committed to a sustainable biobased economy that meets society’s needs for plentiful food and clean air and water.
Source
Gevo, Inc., press release, 2012-07-10.
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