nasdaq gevo industry renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels founded 2005 headquarters douglas county colorado united states area served worldwide key people patrick r. gruber chief executive officer chris ryan president & coo cto brett lund executive vice president and general counsel products isobutanol biobutanol and hydrocarbon derivatives website www.gevo.com gevo inc. is a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company headquartered in unincorporated douglas county colorado in the denver aurora metropolitan area . the company develops bio based alternatives to petroleum based products using a combination of biotechnology and classical chemistry . gevo converts renewable raw materials into isobutanol and renewable hydrocarbons that gevo believes can be directly integrated on a drop in basis into existing fuel and chemical products . 1 gevo s investors include burrill & company khosla ventures lanxess osage university partners total and virgin green fund among others . contents 1 economics of isobutanol production 2 technology engineering and production 3 target markets 4 references 5 external links 6 further reading economics of isobutanol production edit isobutanol is a four carbon c 4 alcohol that can be directly used as a specialty chemical or a value added fuel blendstock . 2 it can also be converted into butenes using simple dehydration chemistry deployed in the refining and petrochemicals industries today . butenes are primary hydrocarbon feedstocks that are used in the production of plastics fibers rubber other polymers and hydrocarbon fuels . isobutanol produced from renewable raw materials may be a competitively priced alternative source of c 4 hydrocarbons for the petrochemical and refining industries . over the last decade fermentable sugars had lower cost volatility than petroleum which is important to industrial c 4 consumers who are seeking less volatile sources that might be used to hedge equivalent petroleum derived materials . isobutanol and its derivatives have potential applications in approximately 40 percent of the global petrochemicals market . manufacturers can replace petroleum derived raw materials with isobutanol derived raw materials without modification to their equipment or production processes . additionally the final products produced from isobutanol based raw materials are chemically equivalent to those produced from petroleum based raw materials and may help reduce the time to market adoption . 3 technology engineering and production edit gevo has developed technology to retrofit existing ethanol production plants to produce isobutanol . gevo s integrated fermentation technology or gift 4 is an integrated technology platform for the efficient production and separation of isobutanol . gift consists of two components proprietary biocatalysts that convert sugars derived from multiple renewable feedstocks into isobutanol through fermentation and a proprietary separation unit that is designed to continuously separate isobutanol from water during the fermentation process . gevo developed its technology platform to be compatible with the existing approximately 20 bgpy billion gallons per year of global operating ethanol production capacity as estimated by the renewable fuels association . gift is designed to allow relatively low capital expenditure retrofits of existing ethanol facilities enabling a rapid and cost efficient route to isobutanol production from the fermentation of renewable feedstocks . 5 gevo is also developing biocatalysts to convert sugars derived from biomass to produce cellulosic isobutanol once the conversion technology is commercially viable . gevo plans to expand its production capacity beyond its initial commercial facility to produce and sell over 500 million gallons of isobutanol by 2014 . demonstration facility in st. joseph gevo s production process was demonstrated in september 2009 on a commercially relevant scale with the retrofit of icm s 1 mgpy million gallons per year ethanol facility in st. joseph missouri . 6 this demonstration project illustrates that gevo s model for repurposing ethanol plants for scalable production of isobutanol can be accomplished rapidly and with a low up front capital investment . first commercial production facility in september 2010 gevo acquired ownership of a 22 mgpy ethanol production facility in luverne minnesota . 7 gevo anticipates beginning its retrofit of the luverne facility in the fourth quarter of 2010 . commercial production of isobutanol is expected to begin at the luverne facility in the first half of 2012 . 8 target markets edit most of the technology necessary to convert isobutanol into plastics fibers rubber other polymers and hydrocarbon fuels is known and practiced in the chemicals industry today . gevo s commercialization efforts are focused on the following markets isobutanol without any modification isobutanol has applications as a specialty chemical and a fuel blendstock . in the fuel blendstock market isobutanol can be used to replace high value blendstocks such as alkylate and can be blended in conjunction with or as a substitute for ethanol and other widely used fuel oxygenates . 9 in november 2010 gevo became the first company to receive epa environmental protection agency certification for isobutanol as a fuel blendstock after meeting the epa s standards under the clean air act . 10 the global gasoline oxygenate market is approximately 40 bgpy based upon data from the international energy agency iea . while isobutanol can be used as a replacement for ethanol its product properties are significantly differentiated from ethanol . as a gasoline blendstock isobutanol s low reid vapor pressure rvp high energy content and low water solubility compared to ethanol make it a valuable product that can be sold directly to refiners and is compatible with existing engine and industry infrastructure including pipeline assets . isobutanol can also be sold for immediate use as a specialty solvent . this global market for butanol represents approximately 1.1 bgpy based upon volume data from sri . plastics fibers rubber and other polymers isobutanol can be converted into a wide variety of hydrocarbons that form the basis for the production of many products including rubber lubricants additives methyl methacrylate polypropylenes polyesters and polystyrene representing an aggregate potential market for isobutanol of approximately 67 bgpy based upon volume data from sri cmai and nexant . hydrocarbon fuels alternatively the hydrocarbons that can be produced from isobutanol can be used to manufacture jet and diesel fuel as well as other hydrocarbon fuels . the hydrocarbon fuels that can be produced from isobutanol collectively represent a potential market for isobutanol of over 900 bgpy based upon volume data from iea . references edit the post alcohol world . the economist . october 28 2010 . retrieved 2010 12 05 . leber jessica january 13 2010 . biobutanol firm aims to compete with ethanol in 4 years . the new york times . retrieved 2010 12 05 . canter neil july 1 2008 . a second generation biofuel . allbusiness . retrieved 2010 12 05 . gevo our technology pentland william march 20 2008 . beyond ethanol . forbes . retrieved 2010 12 05 . gevo announces first retrofit of ethanol demonstration plant to biobutanol for the oil and chemical industries . gevo . september 30 2009 . retrieved 2010 12 05 . mergers & acquisitions . star tribune . august 15 2010 . retrieved 2010 12 05 . wald matthew l. 10 march 2011 . ethanol plant is switching to butanol . new york times . retrieved 10 march 2011 . from 1st to 2nd generation biofuel technologies pdf . international energy agency . november 2008 . retrieved 2010 12 05 . gevo s isobutanol receives epa registration . ethanol producer magazine . november 23 2010 . retrieved 2010 12 08 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to gevo inc. official website further reading edit the future of biofuels . the economist . october 28 2010 . 16 biofuels biochems companies make global cleantech 100 list . biofuels digest . october 14 2010 . 100 people in bioenergy . biofuels digest . october 15 2010 . biofuel maker gevo files for ipo worth up to 150m . businessweek . august 13 2010 . fehrenbacher katie august 13 2010 . what you need to know from gevo s s 1 . earth2tech . ricketts camille august 13 2010 . another biofuel ipo gevo files for 150m sale . venturebeat . ehde lori august 10 2010 . agri energy sale official ; gevo to produce isobutanol . rock country star herald . kris bevill august 17 2010 . gevo goes public to fund ethanol purchases . ethanol producer magazine . bringing biobutanol to market bioenergy profits principle position only for growth . biofuels digest . august 23 2010 . fehrenbacher katie august 19 2010 . 10 of cargill s next gen biofuel bets . reuters via earth2tech . the biorefinery project of the future part i of a 10 part series . biofuels digest . september 22 2010 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gevo inc & oldid 706344977 categories biofuel producersbiofuel in the united stateshidden categories commons category without a link on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 february 2016 at 20 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . 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