US Gevo picks engineer for renewable fuel plants

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Gevo has picked Koch Project Solutions to provide the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for some expansion projects it is in the process of financing, the US-based isobutanol producer said on Monday.

Koch will also provide project-execution management services.

Earlier in 2020, Gevo hired Citigroup Global Markets to help it finance its operations and expansion projects. Koch will be involved in those projects that would be financed by Citigroup.

Gevo ferments sugar to produce ethanol and isobutanol at a plant in Luverne, Minnesota. It had suspended the ethanol portion of the plant, but it continues to make isobutanol.

The company also has a demonstration plant in Silsbee, Texas, that converts isobutanol into renewable jet fuel, renewable iso-octane and renewable iso-octene.

Gevo wants to build more of these downstream plants.

Late in December, the company said it obtained an option to buy land near Lake Preston in South Dakota state for a renewable fuels project. If built, the project would produce 45m gal/year (170m litres/year).

Gevo may also build a plant next to its site in Luverne, the company said.

In regards to the FEED portion of the expansion projects, Paul Switzer, president of Koch Project Solutions, said, “Gevo and Koch Project Solutions have forged a beneficial partnership that will deliver this valuable technology at a meaningful scale. It fits well into the Koch vision to help deliver superior societal benefits from existing feedstocks.”