The Case for Conversion

December 11, 2024

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by Luke Geiver (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Gevo Inc. expects to close early this year on a deal to acquire the ethanol production and carbon capture and storage assets of Red Trail Energy LLC in Richardton, North Dakota, for $210 million. Gevo intends to transform the RTE facility into an operation that produces transportation fuels and chemicals with net-zero emissions.

In Illinois, Crysalis Biosciences Inc. announced plans in October 2024 to retrofit a shuttered ethanol plant into a first-of-its-kind SAF plant. Crysalis intends to produce 5,000 to 10,000 gallons per day of low carbon-intensity sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), or the feedstock needed for its production.

Although the conversion, utilization and long-term plans of Gevo and Crysalis differ in many ways, there are common themes between the projects—they illustrate the growing trend in producers, investors and even state organizations entering the SAF market. These parties want to play a part in carbon intensity score reduction and job creation and to establish their place in a new, financially appealing opportunity that links ethanol production to SAF production.

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Gevo will have the ability to market carbon abatement while also delivering advanced biofuel, enhancing Gevo’s value to shareholders.

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The CCS asset pursued and created by RTE was a multi-year, multi-million-dollar effort that involved many organizations, permits and exploratory growing pains. Since 2022, the capture and sequestration operation has been running without incident and today is generating 45Q tax credits.

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While committed to producing SAF, Gevo is also admittedly on a mission to change the narrative about renewable energy such as SAF and other biobased products. Gruber wants the industry to focus on a net-zero outcome—he believes it should be the ultimate goal, from the agriculture practices used to grow corn, to the end products such as ethanol for fuel or SAF feedstock. SAF presents an exciting future for Gevo and ethanol producers alike, he says, but no one cares about SAF with a high CI score. “That is the message the ethanol industry needs to remember,” Gruber says.

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From Shuttered To SAF
Crysalis Biosciences is a biochemicals maker that, like Gevo, has invested in an ethanol plant to fulfill its true SAF vision. In early 2024, the company acquired and began renovation of a 55 MMgy ethanol plant shuttered in 2019 near Sauget, Illinois, a mostly industrial area adjacent to the Mississippi River in greater St. Louis. The original plant, run by Center Ethanol, included four fermentation tanks, four distillation tanks, a beer well and other field-erected tanks across a 57-acre campus.

Crysalis, with help from the National Renewable Energy Lab, developed its biorefinery tech that converts plant-derived raw materials into various chemicals through microbial fermentation with catalytic upgrading. The company has used a variety of funding and backing to make the initial purchase and subsequent upgrades to the plant, including investments from the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Financing Alliance Fund (SAFFA Fund I) that counts Airbus as its anchor investor. READ MORE

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