New York (Platts)--12Nov2010/234 pm EST/1934 GMT
US isobutanol maker Gevo said it has cleared its product with the US Environmental Protection Agency as a fuel additive. The company said its isobutanol, a form of biobutanol, is the first isobutanol to be listed in the EPA's Fuel Registration Directory. "We've taken another important step in commercializing our product in the near term," CEO Patrick Gruber said Thursday. "Along with the chemicals market, selling isobutanol as a low Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) biofuel blendstock is one of our most important opportunities." Gevo estimates the potential market for hydrocarbon fuels that can be produced from isobutanol is more than 900 billion gal/year. The company's strategy involves cherry-picking the many US ethanol plants looking to boost revenue and retrofitting them to produce either ethanol or biobutanol depending on economics. Gevo said Thursday it will "soon" begin the retrofit of a 22 million gal/year ethanol facility in Luverne, Minnesota, to produce 18 million gal/year of isobutanol. Biobutanol has several advantages over ethanol, including a higher energy content, lower RVP and low water solubility--a plus for pipeline movement. One drawback is that the typical biobutanol process is not as efficient as that of ethanol, leading to less biobutanol and higher operating costs. Under the latest US renewables mandates, known as RFS2, isobutanol qualifies for 30% more Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) than ethanol, Gevo said Thursday. RINs are issued by the EPA to track production of alternative transportation fuels and are tradeable. "Isobutanol has characteristics that make it an attractive alternative to other gasoline components like alkylate and aromatics, which should enable refiners to modify their gasoline formulation in ways that increase their operating margins," said Gevo. The company said isobutanol "can be used directly as a specialty chemical, as a gasoline and jet fuel blendstock, and through conversion into plastics, fibers, rubber and other polymers." --Beth Evans, beth_evans@platts.com Similar stories appear in Oilgram News. See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products/oilgramnews