Gevo inks agreement with Argentinian alcohol producer Porta

Gevo, a US biofuels producer, has signed a joint agreement with alcohol producer Porta Hnos to develop several isobutanol plants in Argentina.

Financial terms for developing the corn-fed plants were not immediately disclosed.

The first plant, slated to come online by 2017, has an expected annual production of 5m gallons of isobutanol. Gevo is projecting about $1m in annual revenue — from royalties, marketing fees, and yeast sales — once the Porta-owned plant is operational.

In a statement, Gevo said that the production capacity of any additional plants and the projected costs and revenue associated with those facilities have yet to be disclosed.

"Porta is a unique partner for Gevo, as they are expected to be both a direct isobutanol licensee, as well as a partner in building out isobutanol plants for other plant owners," said Gevo's CEO, Patrick Gruber.

He added: "We are excited to leverage their EPC expertise and their local Argentinian presence to accelerate the adoption of our isobutanol technology throughout Argentina, and potentially elsewhere in South America.

"By partnering with Porta, this will dramatically decrease the investment in engineering and business development resources that Gevo would otherwise have to deploy to roll out our technology in the region. As a result, we anticipate any revenue derived from the Porta relationship to be high margin in nature."