Isobutanol Key Markets

• Solvents and coatings. We seek to produce a solvent-grade isobutanol that can be used in the existing butanol market as a cost-effective alternative to petroleum-derived solvents with a lower carbon footprint.
  

  • Chemical companies are looking for ways to reduce the cost and volatility of their raw materials. They also have a desire to improve their sustainability profile. Our goal is to provide butanol users with the opportunity to improve their economic and environmental profiles by using biobased isobutanol for all of their butanol needs.

• Materials, Plastics and Fibers. Isobutanol can be dehydrated with well-known processes to produce butenes which are building blocks for the production of materials such as lubricants, synthetic rubber, PMMA, propylene, xylene and PET. We expect Gevo’s isobutanol can provide chemical companies with an alternative to petroleum-based butenes with advantages in cost, predictability and life cycle profile.
  

  • We expect that isobutanol will provide a reliable C4 feedstock with reduced dependency and volatility associated with petroleum and a lower carbon footprint.
  • Chemical manufacturers have been shifting from oil-based to natural gas-based feedstocks which often results in less butene co-products available for the butene users.
  • Chemical companies are looking for ways to reduce their raw material costs and volatility. They also have a desire to improve their sustainability profile.
  • A fully renewable Bio-PET bottle is under testing using isobutanol produced by Gevo.

    

• Biojet Blendstock. Isobutanol has been converted to kerosene which is a drop-in blend component for petroleum jet fuel. We expect that biobased kerosene can provide a cleaner burning, lower carbon, renewable jet fuel.
  

  • Gevo and others have demonstrated the conversion of isobutanol into a renewable jet fuel blendstock which meets current ASTM and US military synthetic jet fuel blendstock performance and purity requirements. Gevo is actively pursuing the qualification of its biojet fuel with appropriate technical and regulatory bodies.
  • The aviation industry is in search of lower carbon, cleaner burning fuels to reduce their dependence on petroleum. Commercial airlines, represented by organizations such as CAAFI, ATA, IATA and ICAO, are currently looking to form strategic alliances with biofuels companies to meet their supply demands.

    

  • Download the Biojet Fact Sheet

    

• Gasoline Blendstock. When blended into gasoline, isobutanol should enable refiners greater flexibility in meeting their clean air and renewable fuel obligations. For example, isobutanol may replace some of the natural gas liquids and lower value blendstocks, such as alkylate, that are commonly used today. Isobutanol’s hydrocarbon-like properties should enable a refiner to produce finished gasoline at the refinery and distribute it in existing pipelines.
  

  • While isobutanol can be used as a replacement for ethanol, it is significantly differentiated from ethanol and its properties make it a superior gasoline blendstock.
  • Isobutanol can be blended up to and beyond 16% which overcomes the ethanol “blend wall” currently restricting biofuel blending at greater volumes.
  • Isobutanol’s low water solubility should eliminate the need for dedicated infrastructure (pipelines, blender pumps, Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs), etc.)
  • Isobutanol’s low Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) and renewable fuel oxygenate status gives refiners using isobutanol blends more flexibility in their gasoline formulations to meet clean air standards.
  • Isobutanol has 30% more energy content than ethanol and an EPA approved RIN value of 1.3 and can qualify as an “advanced biofuel” under the RFS2.

    

• Other Hydrocarbon Fuels. Isobutanol may be converted into isooctane. Isooctane has a lower RVP and higher octane rating than currently used alkylates. This is valuable for low RVP markets, including most urban areas, and would give refiners an additional option to meet their renewable volume obligations set out by the EPA.

Read Gevo’s latest white paper, Isobutanol for Transportation Fuels HERE (PDF).