Low Carbon Biofuels
Gevo [website], located in Colorado U.S.A., addresses the market need of reducing greenhouse gas emissions with sustainable alternatives, and is commercializing the next generation of biofuels with diesel, gasoline and jet fuel that have the potential to achieve zero carbon emissions.
Management believes that its proven, patented technology enabling the use of a variety of low-carbon sustainable feedstocks to produce price-competitive low carbon products such as gasoline components, jet fuel, and diesel fuel yields the potential to generate project and corporate returns that justify the build-out of a multi-billion dollar business.
Its renewable low-carbon jet fuels can be used in today's aircraft. The Alcohol-to-Jet Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK) is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is one of the few non-fossil based alternative jet fuels available for commercial use.
The company is replacing petroleum-based jet fuel as it meets or exceeds the standards in ASTM D1655 specification:
- For flash point, the standard stipulates a 38 degrees C minimum, and both typical Jet A-1 and ATJ are well within acceptable range at 48 degrees C.
- Both also pass the standard for thermal oxidation stability.
- For freezing point, the standard requires -40 degrees C maximum for Jet A and -47 degrees C for Jet A-1,and Jet A-1 complies with -50 degrees C, while ATJ is -80 degrees C.
- The energy density standard is 42.8 MJ/kg minimum, and Jet A-1 complies with 42.9 MJ/kg, while ATJ has 43.2 MJ/kg.
- The total sulfur content standard is 0.3 percent max, while Jet A-1 comes in at 0.05 percent and ATJ rates at less than 0.01 percent.
White Paper on Sustainable Aviation Fuel, December 2019 (9 pgs.) Link
Isobutanol is a basic building block we use to create many low-carbon renewable biofuels, and yet it has an enormous market in its own right. The market for ethanol-free (E0) gasoline is estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration to be about 5 billion gallons per year, outside of reformulated gasoline (RFG) regions. RFG areas are required to sell gasoline containing an oxygenate. Until recently, ethanol was the only gasoline oxygenate available. Gevo's isobutanol enables ethanol-free gasoline in RFG areas. When RFG regions are included in the market size estimation, the total ethanol-free market is expected to be about 7 billion gallons per year - and that's a lot of potential. Who is interested in buying this E0 gasoline? Owners of boats, small engine vehicles, sports cars, luxury cars and farmers. In other words, many tens of millions throughout the world.
Some interesting considerations:
The American gasoline market is estimated at over 140 billion gallons per year (BGPY)
The estimated market size of clear gasoline (E0) is 5.3 BGPY
The RFG markets is 30% of the total market or 42 BGPY
Currently, clear gasoline can't be sold in RFG areas because it doesn't contain an oxygenate.
Isobutanol enables ethanol-free gasoline markets in RFG areas. To calculate the market size, apply the same ratio that E0 has in non-RFG markets to RFG markets, so the size of RFG E0 market would be about 2,271 MGPY.
Gevo's Bio-Based Isobutanol Production Process Explained
Ethanol production plants are looking for new ways to add products to their production capability as a way to increase margin at their site. Gevo's Luverne, MN, facility has exercised one of those options by producing isobutanol alongside ethanol in a side-by-side operation since 2014. Various streams in the plant are shared between the operations to minimize capital and operating cost.
White Paper on the Biobased Isobutanol Production Process, 5 pgs. Link
In addition to addressing the problems of fuels, Gevo's technology also enables certain plastics, such as polyester, to be made with more sustainable ingredients.
Videos January 2020 Link, Link; March 2020 Link,