Gevo Opens Biorefinery for Fully Renewable Paraxylene
August 26 2013 - 8:15AM
Gevo, Inc. (Nasdaq:GEVO), the world's only commercial producer of
bio-isobutanol, today held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its
demonstration-scale paraxylene plant in Silsbee, Texas. The
paraxylene facility is located adjacent to Gevo's existing jet fuel
plant in Silsbee, and establishes the site as a biorefinery that
will serve the renewable chemicals and true drop-in biofuels
markets. Congressman Steve Stockman, Mike Schultheis, Principal
Engineer Sustainable Packaging Global R&D of The Coca-Cola
Company, James C. Greenwood, CEO of the Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO), and Simon Upfill-Brown, President of South
Hampton Resources were on hand to deliver remarks and participate
in the grand opening.
Gevo is working with The Coca-Cola Company to deliver a new
production technology for renewable paraxylene, a key building
block for producing fully renewable PET for beverage bottles.
Research and Development support for this plant was provided by The
Coca-Cola Company under a Joint Development Agreement.
Gevo is working with Toray Industries, Inc. to develop renewable
paraxylene, a building block for fully renewable polyester for
packaging films and fibers used in textiles, clothing and other
applications. Funding assistance for the construction of the
paraxylene plant was provided by Toray Industries, Inc., one of the
world's leading producers of fibers, plastics, films, and
chemicals. Gevo and Toray have successfully produced fully
renewable and recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers
and films from isobutanol at laboratory scale in 2011. Toray has
also signed an offtake agreement for paraxylene produced at the
Silsbee facility. Toray will purchase paraxylene from Gevo and will
convert it into PET fibers, textiles and films for scale-up
evaluation and market development purposes.
"We believe we have an elegant, viable route to fully-renewable,
non-petroleum derived PET and we are pleased that The Coca-Cola
Company and Toray have supported this work," said Patrick Gruber,
Gevo's chief executive officer. "Fully renewable PET has the
potential to make the world a better place by reducing our
dependence on oil and the environmental consequences associated
with petroleum based raw materials."
"While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has
been available for many years, we believe Gevo possesses
technologies that have high potential to create it on a global
commercial level within the next few years," added Scott Vitters,
General Manager, PlantBottle™ Packaging Innovation Platform at The
Coca-Cola Company. "The opening of this facility is an important
milestone toward our vision of creating all of our PET plastic
packaging from responsibly-sourced plant materials."
The majority of the world's PET production is for synthetic
fibers (in excess of 60 percent), with bottle production accounting
for around 30 percent of global demand. Gevo's paraxylene, once
converted to bio-based PET, has high potential for any commercial
application currently served by petroleum-derived PET.
According to Yukichi Deguchi, Senior Vice President, Member of
the Board, and General Manager of the R&D division at Toray,
Toray's management policy states that all business strategies must
place priority on the global environment in an effort to help
realize a sustainable society. Under this policy, Toray is
expanding its biomass-derived materials business centered on
research and development of biomass-derived polymers. "PET is
one of the major polymer products for Toray and the completion of
this demonstration-scale facility by Gevo is a significant step to
evaluate business potential for the fully renewable PET," Deguchi
said.
About Gevo
Gevo is a leading renewable chemicals and next-generation
biofuels company. Gevo's patent-protected, capital-light business
model converts existing ethanol plants into bio-refineries to make
isobutanol. This versatile chemical can be directly integrated into
existing chemical and fuel products to deliver environmental and
economic benefits. Gevo has executed initial commercial-scale
production runs at its isobutanol facility in Luverne, Minn.,
constructed in conjunction with ICM, a leading provider of
proprietary ethanol process technology, and has a marquee list of
partners including The Coca-Cola Company, Sasol Chemical
Industries, and LANXESS, Inc., an affiliate of LANXESS Corporation,
among others. Gevo is committed to a sustainable bio-based economy
that meets society's needs for plentiful food and clean air and
water. For more information, visit www.gevo.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements include statements that are not purely statements of
historical fact, and can sometimes be identified by our use of
terms such as "intend," "expect," "plan," "estimate," "future,"
"strive" and similar words. These forward-looking statements are
made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and
assumptions of the management of Gevo and are subject to
significant risks and uncertainty. Investors are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All
such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are
made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise
these statements, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise. Although the company believes that the
expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are
reasonable, these statements involve many risks and uncertainties
that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be
expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. For a
further discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ from those expressed in these
forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the
business of Gevo in general, see the risk disclosures in the Annual
Report on Form 10-K of Gevo for the year ended December 31, 2012,
as amended, and in subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K and
other filings made with the SEC by Gevo.
CONTACT: Media Contact:
Robin Peak
Gevo, Inc.
T: (303) 815-4478
rpeak@gevo.com
Investor Contact:
Mark Smith
Gevo, Inc.
T: (720) 267-8615
msmith@gevo.com
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