Gevo, a leader in renewable fuels and sustainable chemical innovation, has announced the successful completion of the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Agri-Energy, to AE Innovation, marking a strategic step forward in the US-based company's focus on advancing low-carbon fuel production and streamlining its core operations.  

The transaction includes Agri’s 18-million-gallon-per-year ethanol facility in Luverne, Minnesota, positioning both companies to accelerate growth in their respective markets and contribute to the renewable energy economy of the Midwest, the company said in a release. 

For Gevo, this is a divestiture of a non-core asset that provided $2 million in cash up front and $5 million in future cash installments, while saving annual idling costs of approximately $3 million per year. Under the terms of the sale, Gevo retained ownership of the majority of the isobutanol production assets onsite and approximately 30 acres of land, as per the company release. 

AE, an agriculture-oriented buyer group located in Minnesota, acquired Agri with the intent to restart ethanol production at the plant, which has been idled since March 2020. AE intends to use the site to produce ethanol, and to make the site available for other companies to scale up new technologies and ideas as an innovation site. 

Gevo’s retained assets at the site would allow the company to continue to utilise its differentiated and patented fermentation technologies with capacity to produce 1 million gallons per year of low-carbon isobutanol for use in chemicals markets, as feedstock for racing fuels, gasoline, and jet fuel.