 "Gevo's first commercial bio-based isobutanol plant at Luverne (USA)")
Further to the MoU signed earlier this year, Pune-based Praj Industries has entered into a licensing agreement and a joint development agreement with US-based Gevo Inc for Gevo’s isobutanol technology. The isobutanol technology will be offered to sugar and starch based ethanol plants, including the majority of Praj's customers globally.
As per the agreement, Praj will invest substantial resources in the development and optimisation of Gevo's isobutanol technology applied to feedstocks including sugar cane, sugar beets, cassava, rice, sorghum, wheat and certain cellulosic sugars. This development work is expected to lead to process design packages (PDP) that would accelerate the licencing of the technology. The PDP will build upon the work Praj has carried out on sugar and starch based feedstocks. Praj and Gevo will also commercialise Gevo's technology for making renewable jet fuel (ATJ) from isobutanol in India. The emission reduction measures adopted by the aviation sector will be greatly helped by use of renewable jet fuel.
“Given Praj's experience of developing and scaling up of technologies as well as its extensive customer base globally, Gevo acknowledges that Praj is a great partner to take the isobutanol technology to these markets," said Dr Patrick Gruber, Gevo's chief executive officer.
As previously announced, Gevo and Praj expect to licence upto 250 million gallons of isobutanol capacity over the next ten years under this partnership.
In addition to the PDP development, Praj will also contribute engineering services to optimise Gevo's Luverne (USA) facility - its first commercial bio-based isobutanol plant. Initially, the focus will be to optimise energy and water usage at the plant, which is expected to lead to an even lower cost isobutanol process.
"We believe that the potential for isobutanol is significant and that it could provide our customers a path to meaningfully improve their profits by diversifying products. We look forward to creating a new and profitable opportunity for 1st generation ethanol plant owners as well as accelerating the use of 2nd generation cellulosic feedstocks to produce isobutanol," said Pramod Chaudhari, executive chairman, Praj.
Gevo Inc is a leading renewable technology, chemical products and next generation biofuels company.
