GEVO Breaks Ground on Its First Commercial-Scale Sustainable Aviation Fuel Facility, Net-Zero 1, in Lake Preston, South Dakota

September 19, 2022

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(Gevo) Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) is pleased to announce the groundbreaking of its first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility, Net-Zero 1 (NZ1). Gevo’s management team was joined today by government officials, representatives from partner companies and customers, business leaders, local farmers, and members of the media to ceremoniously break ground.

The NZ1 project is expected to employ 1,000 people during the construction phase with approximately 90 full-time employees once operational. The facility will be constructed on 245 acres, very favorable for producing low-carbon SAF with site preparation beginning now and official construction expected to begin in 2023.

“This is an important milestone that our team has worked hard to achieve,” said Dr. Patrick Gruber, Gevo’s Chief Executive Officer. “Building production facilities like Net-Zero 1 that will use de-fossilized energy, create a business system that rewards sustainability improvements and is equitable for all parties in the value chain is important to us. As all the elements come together, from farmers growing sustainable corn feedstock, to renewable wind power and renewable natural gas providing electricity and thermal energy for the facility, to the high-value nutrition products, corn oil, and sustainable aviation fuel leaving the gate, we expect to see our circular economy in action, increasing the sustainability of every product we make while simultaneously reducing the impact of fossil fuels.”

“South Dakota provides all the elements for success required for our first commercial facility, but we’re actively working to identify and develop our second site since we have supply offtake agreements that require additional capacity beyond Net-Zero 1,” said Dr. Chris Ryan, President and Chief Operating Officer “As we build our production capacity to meet our supply obligations, we know these projects also deliver value to local farmers and communities. We’re excited to move forward and provide that value,” added Dr. Ryan.

The associated wind energy project that will provide electricity to the facility is in development. Plans for the site also incorporate green hydrogen produced from water and renewable natural gas. Net-Zero 1 will show the world that the leading edge of the energy transition is in the heartland of America, where farmers and facility technicians come together with airline customers, investors, and many others to lead the way forward.

This project schedule is expected to allow Gevo to begin delivery of initial volumes of SAF in 2025 to fulfill a portion of existing supply agreements. Net-Zero 1 is expected to produce 55 MGPY of SAF, or 65 MGPY of total hydrocarbon volumes.

In 2023, Gevo expects to close the construction financing for the NZ1 project and begin construction of NZ1.

About Gevo
Gevo’s mission is to transform renewable energy and carbon into energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons. These liquid hydrocarbons can be used for drop-in transportation fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel, that when burned have the potential to yield net-zero greenhouse gas emissions when measured across the full life cycle of the products. Gevo uses low-carbon renewable resource-based carbohydrates as raw materials and is in an advanced state of developing renewable electricity and renewable natural gas for use in production processes, resulting in low-carbon fuels with substantially reduced carbon intensity (the level of greenhouse gas emissions compared to standard petroleum fossil-based fuels across their life cycle). Gevo’s products perform as well or better than traditional fossil-based fuels in infrastructure and engines, but with substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions. 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. Gevo’s ability to penetrate the growing low-carbon fuels market depends on the price of oil and the value of abating carbon emissions that would otherwise increase greenhouse gas emissions. Gevo 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.

Gevo believes that the Argonne National Laboratory GREET model is the best available standard of scientific-based measurement for life cycle inventory or LCI.

Learn more at Gevo’s website: www.gevo.com READ MORE

THE GEVO NW IOWA RNG PROJECT ACHIEVES IMPORTANT EPA MILESTONE AHEAD OF SCHEDULE (Gevo)

Gevo, Inc. Provides Company and Project Updates (Gevo/Globe Newswire)

Gevo: Net Zero 1 project is on schedule (Gevo/Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Gevo provides update of Net Zero 1 SAF project (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Excerpt from Gevo: Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) is pleased to announce that its Northwest Iowa Renewable Natural Gas project, Gevo NW Iowa RNG, LLC (Gevo RNG), was granted registration approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), allowing Gevo RNG to participate in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.

Gevo previously estimated that approval for RFS Renewable Identification Numbers (RINS) through RFS and carbon credits through California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program would happen in late 2022 or early 2023. This early approval is a result of the quality work by Gevo’s expert operations, sustainability, and compliance teams as well as Gevo’s dedicated project partners.

“The work we are doing at the Northwest Iowa RNG operations is critical to Gevo’s work in the reduction of the carbon intensity of fuels. While Gevo RNG is just one piece of the circular economy that Gevo is building, the capture of manure to make RNG in the production of transportation fuels is a very important component, said Dr. Chris Ryan, President and Chief Operating Officer at Gevo, Inc. Meeting the EPA registration requirements ahead of schedule is the direct result of the efforts of a dedicated team of hard-working individuals who demonstrate our collective commitment to this mission.”

The RNG Project generates renewable natural gas captured from dairy cow manure. The manure for the RNG Project is supplied by three dairy farms located in Northwest Iowa totaling over 20,000 milking cows. At full operational capacity, the RNG Project is expected to generate approximately 355,000 MMBtu of RNG per year, which is marketed by BP Canada Energy Marketing Corp. and BP Products North America Inc. (collectively, “bp”) in California on behalf of Gevo. READ MORE

Excerpt from Gevo/Globe Newswire: Net-Zero 1 Status
Following the recent groundbreaking ceremony in Lake Preston, South Dakota, the Net-Zero 1 (“NZ1”) project is on schedule with initial volumes of SAF expected to be delivered in 2025. NZ1 is expected to produce approximately 55 MGPY of SAF, or 62 MGPY of total hydrocarbon volumes, which would satisfy part of the ~375 MGPY of financeable SAF and hydrocarbon supply agreements that are currently in place.

The transition to an ethanol-to-SAF design from Gevo’s original isobutanol-to-SAF and isooctane design continues to yield improved output expectations as pre-project planning has been completed through phase 2 of front-end loading work (“FEL-2”). The results of this work, combined with support from the CFPC, have led to the forecast Project EBITDA¹ for NZ1 to be in the range of $300-$325 million per year, a 56% increase at the mid-point from the prior estimate of $200 million per year. The total installed cost for NZ1, including the capital required for the alcohol-to-jet fuel plant as well as any site development costs, is currently forecasted to be approximately $850 million, a 33% increase from the prior estimate of $640 million. This increase is primarily due to increased steel, equipment, and supply chain costs related to the inflationary environment.

Progress on Key NZ1 Development Milestones
Through year-end 2022:

√ Close the purchase of the land for NZ1 in Lake Preston, South Dakota
√ Execute development agreements for:

√ Wind energy
- Wastewater (design no longer requires)
√ Green hydrogen

• Select engineering, procurement, and construction (“EPC”) contractor
• Select fabricator for hydrocarbon plant modules
• Substantial Completion of Front End Engineering Design
√ Break ground and begin site preparation at Lake Preston

Through first-half 2023:

• Close the construction financing, including non-recourse debt
• Order long lead equipment

Throughout the remainder of 2022 and 2023, Gevo expects to update stockholders about certain key milestones related to the development, financing, and construction of NZ1 as well as subsequent Net-Zero plants. Updates to those milestones will be found in the Company’s press releases and investor presentations in the Investor Relations section of Gevo’s website.

Additional Plant Sites
Gevo continues to make steady progress on securing future SAF production locations beyond NZ1. These future sites must offer an appealing mix of attributes that enable the Company to produce low-cost fuels with the lowest carbon footprint possible. Gevo’s preferred list of partners and locations with decarbonization in mind are continuously being refined and the Company is engaged in preliminary feasibility and development discussions with several of them, including ADM.

RNG Project Status
Gevo’s renewable natural gas (“RNG”) project in Northwest Iowa (the “RNG Project”) continues to ramp up its production. The Company recently received notice from the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”) that the RNG produced qualifies for Renewable Identification Numbers (“RINs”). Gevo will begin to recognize revenue for RNG sales in the third quarter of 2022; however, initial revenue will be limited to the value of the commodity, exclusive of environmental credits and will represent a partial quarter. Some sales revenue from environmental attributes are expected in the fourth quarter of 2022; however, the full extent of the available credits will begin contributing to revenue in 2023 due to timing of the approval and documentation process for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (“LCFS”) credits.

The RNG Project is expected to generate Project EBITDA¹ in the range of $16-$22 million per year beginning in 2023, depending on a variety of assumptions, including the value of credits under the federal RFS and the LCFS in California.

Verity Tracking & U.S. Department of Agriculture Grant
Gevo is proud to have been tentatively awarded up to $30 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to advance its Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight initiative. This award and program are expected to be finalized in the coming months.

Gevo will be working with its strong team of partners in the Lake Preston, South Dakota area to lower the Company’s carbon footprint throughout the SAF business system as well as within other projects in Gevo’s portfolio of projects. Gevo plans to deliver a high-quality carbon accounting system that will help reward growers who adopt farming methods that reduce greenhouse GHG emissions. This accounting system will focus on the importance of immutable tracking and tracing of carbon-intensity scores that begins at the farm level and follows the molecules through the production of SAF and finally to its ultimate use in a jet engine. Gevo plans to accomplish these goals through further development and implementation of Verity Tracking, which is a blockchain-enabled solutions platform for carbon tracking throughout an entire business system.

Chevron
Conversations between Chevron and Gevo continue as we each evaluate how best to structure our relationship going forward. Chevron and the Company have mutually agreed upon an extension to the letter of intent between the parties that allows these discussions and negotiations to continue.

Management Comment
Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo commented, “With the bulk of the engineering and design work for Gevo’s NZ1 project in South Dakota nearing completion and our RNG project in Iowa up and running, a portion of our team can shift their focus to the development and planning for projects beyond NZ1. We now have approximately 375 MGPY of commercial offtake commitments. Our team will take all that we have learned, and continue to learn, from the design and construction process for NZ1 and leverage that growing knowledge base as we plan and design each subsequent plant. Gevo has developed an outstanding set of partners with the capability to help execute our plans. We are excited to get on with building out capacity and getting product to the market at commercial scale. NZ1 is going to demonstrate how a commercial scale SAF plant can achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.” Dr. Gruber continued, “The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is a game changer and is expected to reward companies like ours that drive to net-zero emissions.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: Gevo Inc. currently expects to make a final investment decision on its Net Zero 1 (NZ1) project during the second half of this year, according a company and project update released Jan. 19. The project remains on schedule for startup in 2025.

Gevo broke ground on NZ1 in September 2022. The facility, located in Lake Preston, South Dakota, is expected to have the capacity to produce 65 MMgy of renewable fuels, including 55 MMgy of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

According to the company, front-end engineering design (FEED) work is substantially complete, with detailed engineering work continuing. Equipment procurement for the facility is expected to begin soon and detailed planning for this year’s construction ramp-up has begun.

Gevo indicated that it has selected an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the NZ1 project. The company said it is currently negotiating an EPC agreement with the selected firm and will disclose more details once the contract is finalized.

Gevo also confirmed the company is in discussions with multiple strategic and financial entities that are interested in providing equity funding for a portion of the NZ1 project. The company currently expects financial close and a final investment decision on the project to take place during the second half of this year.

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Gevo also said it is making progress on securing future SAF production locations.

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A full copy of the company and project update is available on the Gevo website. READ MORE