Gevo Licenses Isobutanol Process with India’s Praj

Gevo’s proprietary isobutanol technology is now available for licensing to processors of sugar cane juice and molasses. The move is a result of work with Indian biofuels company Praj Industries under joint development and license agreements signed in November 2015.

Praj adapted Gevo’s process to use sugar cane and molasses feedstocks and has performed test-runs in order to develop a process design package that is now being offered for commercialization to cane juice and molasses-based ethanol plants.

Licensing is expected to focus on Praj’s plants in India, South America and southeast Asia, with initial capacity targeted to start up in 2019-2020.

“Praj has worked on 750 projects for ethanol plants across 75 countries. This isobutanol platform can be offered as bolt-on to an existing ethanol plant or as a greenfield plant,” said Pramod Chaudhari, chairman of Praj.

Gevo is expected to be the primary off-taker, marketer, and initial distributor for the isobutanol produced from Praj’s plants.

In the next phase of commercialization, Praj is working to adapt Gevo’s technology to its second-generation biorefineries, enabling the production of isobutanol from lignocellulosic biomass.