Duo team up to produce isobutanol

Highlands EnviroFuels has signed a letter of intent with Gevo to become a licensee producing renewable isobutanol.

Ethanol producer Highlands Envirofuels will build a commercial-scale syrup mill in Highlands County, Florida. The plant will have a production capacity of approximately 200,000 tonnes per year of fermentable sugar. The facility will process locally grown sugarcane and sweet sorghum to create a sugar stream for fermentation and the production of isobutanol. The isobutanol retrofit will produce approximately 20-25 million gallons per year.

Developments to the Highlands facility have been in the pipeline since 2010. Four years ago, the company announced it was going ahead with plans to build a 30 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Highlands County using sweet sorghum and sugarcane as feedstock.