Gevo operates a development facility within an 18-million-gallon-per-year ethanol and isobutanol production plant in Luverne, Minnesota, situated among the cornfields.
The ethanol plant was originally built to capitalize on the government regulations that encourage the use of ethanol blendstock in gasoline, and Gevo purchased it in 2010, modifying the plant so it could help the company develop processes to produce both ethanol and isobutanol. Gevo also used the facility as a demonstration site in conjunction with local farmers, to educate Gevo’s stakeholders about regenerative agriculture and the versatility of corn and its co-products, as well as biofuel production, including SAF, isobutanol, and ethanol.
Minnesota Innovation Continues
Gevo finalized the sale of Agri-Energy, LLC, to A.E. Innovation, LLC, in November 2025. A.E. Innovation is an agriculture-oriented buyer group is located in Minnesota, which acquired the facility with the intent to restart ethanol production there. A.E. intends to use the site to produce ethanol, and also to make the site available for other companies to scale up new technologies and ideas as an innovation site.
Gevo’s retained assets at the site allow the company to continue to utilize its differentiated and patented fermentation technologies with capacity to produce 1 million gallons per year of low-carbon isobutanol for use in chemicals markets, as feedstock for racing fuels, gasoline, and jet fuel.
The Process
At a typical dry-mill corn ethanol plant, the corn mash stream coming out of the front end of the process that feeds the ethanol fermentation is the same stream used for isobutanol fermentation. This stream is prepared for ethanol and isobutanol fermentation, then added to large non-sterile fermentation tanks, where proprietary yeast is added to convert the sugars to ethanol or isobutanol.
Using Wind Power to Reduce Our Carbon Intensity
To offset the energy intensity of the renewable fuel plant in Luverne, Minnesota, wind turbine company zero6, formerly Juhl Energy, provides renewable electricity through wind power.
