Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO). has received a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a process that encompasses upgrading ethanol and bio-based alcohols into drop-in, bio-based diesel and jet fuel products.
In a statement, the company said the patented process establishes a new technology and route to hydrocarbons that did not previously exist - creating an opportunity for Gevo to diversify ethanol production to help meet increasing demand for renewable diesel and jet fuel.
Gevo said the patent falls in line with its business model to develop, apply, and scale technology that can be used to produce drop-in hydrocarbon fuels. These fuels, when coupled with its integrated-systems approach that includes regenerative agriculture and non-fossil-based renewable energy, could produce net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the lifecycle of the product.
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“We have been working on the conversion of alcohols into hydrocarbons for many years. Ethanol, when produced using renewable energy in combination with other sustainable practices, could be a good feedstock,” said Gevo CEO Patrick Gruber.
“The technology in this patent is different from what others have done in that it provides high yields of quality diesel fuel, and can also produce SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] if we want. We are believers in the ‘net-zero’ approach. We need to account for carbon and related emissions across the whole of the business system. We must pay attention to the source of renewable carbon and the energy involved with manufacturing fuel products. But that alone isn’t enough. We also have to pay attention to additional key sustainability attributes in the business system, like agricultural practices, land use, protein production, water, and all the rest.”
Paul Bloom, chief carbon and innovation officer at Gevo, said the patent covers technology that has the flexibility to make quality renewable diesel fuel or jet fuel from ethanol in a simple catalytic process.
“Producing renewable diesel makes sense in some regions of the world, whereas in others, producing high levels of jet fuel might be the right economic answer,” Bloom said.
“There is a lot of overlap in the production technology used for the conversion of ethanol or isobutanol to hydrocarbons, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we would broaden our scope. The combination of using decarbonized, plant-based alcohols, with our proprietary innovations to processing techniques known in the chemical industry can be a very powerful approach to dial-in the desired renewable hydrocarbon fuel product mix.”
Gevo said its intellectual property portfolio was valued at more than $400 million by Peak Value IP LLC in 2020.
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