Bio-isobutanol producer Gevo, Inc. has optioned the right to purchase approximately 239 acres of land near Lake Preston, SD, and has met the initial milestone to secure control of a site by the end of this year that meets the conditions required by the contract that Trafigura Trading LLC and Gevo executed in August 2020. (Earlier post.)

The production facility planned for Lake Preston is contemplated to produce about 45,000,000 million gallons per year collectively of jet fuel and renewable gasoline products. Gevo intends to make a decision on whether to purchase the Lake Preston site in the future as part of Citigroup-led project financing.

We like the scale of plant that could be built at the Lake Preston site, it has the potential to produce large amounts of our products. It also has room to expand further, or add other businesses.

—Patrick R. Gruber, Gevo’s CEO

Lake Preston is in eastern South Dakota, about 105 miles from the facility in Luverne, Minnesota.

Gevo uses low-carbon renewable resource-based carbohydrates as raw materials, and is in an advanced state of developing renewable electricity and renewable natural gas for use in production processes, resulting in low-carbon fuels with substantially reduced carbon intensity (the level of greenhouse gas emissions compared to standard petroleum fossil-based fuels across their lifecycle).

Gevo’s products perform as well or better than traditional fossil-based fuels in infrastructure and engines, but with substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to addressing the problems of fuels, Gevo’s technology also enables certain plastics, such as polyester, to be made with more sustainable ingredients.