Englewood-based Gevo, Inc. announced Thursday it has begun startup of the world’s first commercial biobased isobutanol production plant located in Luverne, Minn.
Gevo is converting existing ethanol plants into biorefineries.
The company said that it retrofitted the Luverne plant to incorporate its proprietary yeast and Gevo Integrated Fermentation Technology system to produce biobased isobutanol.
Isobutanol could serve as an alternative to gasoline to fuel combustion engines and has a number of industrial applications in paint solvent, varnish remover, paint additive and gasoline additive.
Gevo said that through its initial operation of the Luverne plant, it expects to advance its learning of large-scale production of renewable isobutanol.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com at twitterHowardPnkratz
