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. Gevo’s investors include Burrill & Company, Khosla Ventures, Lanxess, Osage University Partners, Total, and Virgin Green Fund, among others.

Isobutanol is a four-carbon (C
4) alcohol that can be directly used as a specialty chemical or a value-added fuel blendstock. 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.

Gevo has developed technology to retrofit existing ethanol production plants to produce isobutanol. Gevo’s Integrated Fermentation Technology, or GIFT, 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. 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.

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: