Gevo

Gevo is a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company based in Colorado. The company uses residual starch from inedible field corn that is produced using regenerative and precision farming practices. This feedstock is used to produce high-value protein and isobutanol, a primary building block for renewable hydrocarbons, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable gasoline, and renewable diesel. Gevo’s Alcohol-to-Jet Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK) is a drop-in SAF that is compatible with current aircraft infrastructure.

In 2021, Gevo began developing its Net-Zero 1 Project using 240 acres of land near Lake Preston, South Dakota. The plant is expected to produce ~65 million gallons per year of liquid hydrocarbons in the form of jet fuel and renewable gasoline.

The company also operates a renewable natural gas (RNG) project in Northwest Iowa that produces biogas and injects it into pipelines. The project captures RNG from dairy cow manure that is supplied by three dairy farms located in Northwest Iowa with over 20,000 cows. The project is expected to generate ~400,000 MMBtu of RNG per year.

Key customers and partnerships

Gevo has established partnerships with major airlines including Lufthansa, United Airlines, Etihad, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, and Atlas Air.

The company also signed agreements with BP Canada Energy Marketing and BP Products North America to provide RNG from its Northwest Iowa facility.

Funding and financials

In September 2023, Gevo received a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant of up to USD 30 million from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the company’s Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program. The program aims to track and quantify the carbon-intensity (CI) impact of climate-smart practices while creating market incentives for low-CI corn to support the production of SAF and low-CI ethanol. The company intended to use the grant to accelerate the development of corn for SAF production near Gevo’s Net-Zero 1 plant.

Gevo was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2011. The company generated USD 17.2 million in revenue in 2023 and had an operating loss of USD 81.8 million.