Gevo’s technology is innovative, yet very simple and a great way to create additional value for agricultural products. ICM is excited about the opportunity to work with Gevo in bringing renewable energy solutions to consumers worldwide. Over the years, ICM has proven its ability to bring alternative energy technologies from concept to creation. Our core strength of accelerating the commercialization of various products and processes has made a tremendous impact on the biofuels industry and we’re eager to join Gevo in building the next section of our bridge to energy independence with advanced biofuels technology

—Dave Vander Griend, founder and CEO of ICM, Inc.

Gevo was founded in 2005 by Drs. Frances Arnold, Matthew Peters and Peter Meinhold of the California Institute of Technology. The company is focused on the development of advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals based on isobutanol and its derivatives. Gevo’s technology enables the cost effective, practical production of renewable hydrocarbons such as isooctene and isooctane for the gasoline market, renewable jet fuel and renewable diesel blendstocks. In addition, Gevo’s technology enables the production of a wide variety of chemicals such as isobutylene and paraxylene from renewable resources.

Our data says that it will cost less than $0.30 per gallon to retrofit an ethanol plant to make isobutanol. Isobutanol can be converted to gasoline blendstocks for less than an additional $0.25 per gallon. Think of it: gasoline from an ethanol plant for less than $0.60/gallon additional capital. This technology is a win-win for both the agricultural and petrochemical industries. It opens up new and broader value-added markets to the agricultural community, and it provides the petrochemical industry with an easier route to incorporate renewable fuels and chemicals into their existing infrastructure.

—Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo, Inc.

Liao and his team were able to deliver up to 86% of the theoretical maximum yield of isobutanol from glucose via combinations of manipulations. Click to enlarge. Source: Atsumi et. al 2008

In December 2007, Gevo acquired an exclusive license for a method developed by Dr. James Liao at UCLA for modifying the metabolic pathway of E.coli bacteria for the non-fermentative synthesis of higher alcohols including isobutanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-phenylethanol from glucose. In particular, Liao achieved high-yield, high-specificity production of isobutanol from glucose. Dr. Liao is on Gevo’s scientific advisory board. (Earlier post.)

Liao and his team took the strategy of using the host’s active amino acid biosynthetic pathway and diverting its 2-Keto acid intermediates for alcohol synthesis. Although the researchers implemented their strategy in E. coli, they noted that other organisms such as S.cerevisiae (yeast) are also applicable.

2-Keto acids are intermediates in amino acid biosynthesis pathways. These metabolites can be converted to aldehydes by broad-substrate-range 2-keto-acid decarboxylases (KDCs) and then to alcohols by Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs). Using this strategy, only two non-native steps were needed to produce biofuels by shunting intermediates from amino acid biosynthesis pathways to alcohol production.

—Atsumi et al. (2008)

In their work, reported in a paper in the 3 January 2008 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers found that they could produce isobutanol with a yield of 0.35 g isobutanol per g glucose—86% of the theoretical maximum.

This advanced modification method will enable us to speed up the commercial introduction of advanced biofuels like butanol by several years. In addition, these efficient new pathways raise the possibility of retrofitting existing ethanol plants, at a low capital cost, to produce advanced biofuels. This helps to address one of the major issues in bringing an advanced biofuel to market—capital.

—Pat Gruber

ICM engineers, builds and supports ethanol plants and biorefineries. Proprietary ICM process technology is behind 5.1 billion gallons of ethanol production per year—more than half of North America’s current annual production.

Resources

• Shota Atsumi, Taizo Hanai and James C. Liao (2008) Non-fermentative pathways for synthesis of branched-chain higher alcohols as biofuels. Nature 451, 86-89 doi: 10.1038/nature06450