The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Gevo, a patent for its ethanol to olefins (ETO) process. This patent further cements Gevo’s intellectual property (IP) in bio-based renewable fuel and chemical production from alcohols.
Best-in-class Yields of Olefins from Ethanol
Gevo has been awarded U.S. Patent No. 12,043,587 B2 covering the ETO process. This patent protects the process of using certain proprietary catalyst combinations for converting ethanol into olefins.
This process is designed to give best-in-class cost and yields of olefins from ethanol, with improved energy efficiency, which is intended to help reduce the cost of biofuels and biochemicals.
Olefins with three or four carbon atoms are key building blocks to produce fuels or chemicals. Existing technology makes ethylene, a 2-carbon olefin, from ethanol, and then additional steps are needed to produce the larger and more useful olefins, such as three or four carbon olefins (e.g., propylene and butenes).
Gevo & LG Chem Collaborate to Scale Up Production
This patent protects Gevo’s ETO process, which makes three and/or four carbon olefins in addition to ethylene from ethanol in a single step with a high degree of selectivity and control, which is critical for success. The ETO process is expected to reduce energy and capital cost because of the fewer unit operations involved; and reduce complexity of the process design.
The ETO process technology can be optimized to produce fuels and/or chemicals, the latter of which has been licensed to LG Chem under the previously disclosed joint development agreement. Together Gevo and LG Chem are working to scale up the process for chemicals.
“We’ve been pursuing simplified alcohol to olefin technology since 2007, understanding that low-cost, robust processes to make the right olefins is the critical step to make jet fuel, gasoline, and plastics. It’s our mission to make the transition practical from fossil-based to renewable fuels and chemicals,” says Dr. Pat Gruber, CEO of Gevo.
“Key to making the transition are low-cost, drop-in products. The ETO process technology covered by this patent is expected to be a step-change improvement in capital cost and energy efficiency to produce biofuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), or chemicals, such as propylene, from ethanol.”
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