Highwater Ethanol Begins Biobutanol Retrofit in Minnesota

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned cooperative Highwater Ethanol LLC (Lamberton, Minnesota), in conjunction with partner Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC (Wilmington, Delaware), has begun to retrofit the Lamberton fuel ethanol plant for the production of biobutanol. Butamax is a joint venture between BP plc (NYSE:BP) (London, England) and DuPont (NYSE:DD) (Wilmington).

The estimated $25 million project will bolt on Butamax's patented corn oil separation technology, which is an integral part of a full retrofit to biobutanol production. It also can be installed independently as a first phase of the conversion.

When the system goes into operation early in 2014, it will have the capacity to produce more than 40 million gallons per year of bio-based isobutanol, along with distillers dried grains. The companies selected leading ethanol plant builder Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota) as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

Back in July, Butamax scored a patent victory over Gevo (NASDAQ:GEVO) on a patent dispute that has been ongoing for more than two years. Gevo has been running a pilot facility that produces 10,000 gallons per month of isobutanol in Silsbee, Texas, and is planning to construct a commercial-scale plant at the same location early next year.

Isobutanol has been a buzz word with chemical producers, as it has been proven in large chemical and fuel markets to be a "drop-in" product that should allow producers to replace petroleum-derived raw materials with isobutanol-derived raw materials, without modification to their equipment or production processes. Because isobutanol can drop into existing infrastructure, it should provide for easy integration into existing refining and petrochemical production processes.

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