A third Minnesota ethanol plant is considering a shift in production to a new biofuel called isobutanol.
Butamax Advanced Biofuels, a Wilmington, Del.-based joint venture that is competing to commercialize the technology, said Monday that it's signed up four more ethanol plants for potential retrofits to make the fuel. Others are in Iowa and Nebraska.
The latest plants in what Butamax calls its "early adopters group" are Granite Falls Energy of Granite Falls, Minn.; Platinum Ethanol of Arthur, Iowa, which is owned by Minnesota-based Fagen Inc.; Little Sioux Corn Processors of Marcus, Iowa, and Siouxland Ethanol of Jackson, Neb.
A plant in Luverne, Minn. owned by rival Gevo of Englewood, Colo., last month completed conversion to isobutanol production. Gevo plans other conversions but announced only one other, in Redfield, S.D.
Highwater Ethanol of Lamberton, Minn., announced in December that it might convert to the new fuel.
Butamax hasn't said which of its plants would be retrofitted first. The company, a joint venture of BP and DuPont, said it will break ground on one plant next year, complete it in 2014 and retrofit more based on demand.
Isobutanol, like ethanol, is an alcohol produced by fermentation of corn, though it uses genetically engineered yeast. The final product can be mixed with gasoline as a motor fuel or be used to make chemical products and plastics and is being tested as a jet fuel.
The announcement comes at a time of financial challenge and overcapacity in the ethanol industry. Five of six ethanol makers with plants in Minnesota that publicly report their financial results lost money in the most recent quarter, including Highwater Ethanol. The Granite Falls plant's profits fell, although it still made money.
