Monday, March 28, 2011

A Colorado company plans to convert a Minnesota ethanol plant to make a different kind of alcohol: isobutanol.

Gevo Inc. of Englewood hopes to begin isobutanol production in Luverne in about a year.

Vice President Jack Huttner tells Minnesota Public Radio that while ethanol is used only in gasoline, isobutanol can be sold for more purposes. It's used in making rubber, paints and other products. A few years down the road, he says, they could also sell it as fuel.

Very little isobutanol is now made from renewable ingredients. Most of it is refined from oil. Gevo says it will use a patented yeast to ferment corn sugars into isobutanol instead of ethanol.

Huttner says Gevo's main selling point is corn prices tend to fluctuate less rapidly than oil prices.