Gevo Inc. on March 5 announced plans to expand capacity at its North Dakota ethanol plant to 75 MMgy. The company also plans to make a final investment decision (FID) on the development of an adjacent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project later this year.
Gevo in February 2025 acquired the existing North Dakota facility from Red Trail Energy LLC. The 67 MMgy has operational carbon capture and storage (CCS) capabilities.
During a fourth quarter earnings call held March 5, Gevo CEO Patrick Gruber said the plant “has performed superbly well.”
Paul Bloom, who currently serves as president of Gevo and will transition to the role of CEO on April 1, explained that production at Gevo North Dakota exceeded nameplate capacity last year, reaching approximately 69 MMgy. The company also captured and sequestered 173,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The facility achieved a yield of nearly 3 gallons per bushel. Production included approximately 2 MMgy of cellulosic ethanol produced from corn kernel fiber feedstock.
“To further build on these strong results, I’m happy to announce that we’ve approved our capital plan for Gevo North Dakota to expand capacity to 75 million gallons per year, produce more co-products, improve energy efficiency, capture more carbon dioxide and invest in our operational reliability,” Bloom said. “We are reinvesting in Gevo North Dakota to grow our base business and improve our returns while we set the table for alcohol-to-jet.”
Bloom noted Gevo has set “an aggressive timeline” to deliver these projects and currently anticipates they will be operational in 2027.
Gevo in October 2024 received a conditional commitment for a $1.46 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the development of a 60 MMgy ethanol-to-jet project in South Dakota. Development of that project has been negatively impacted by delays associated with Summit Carbon Solution’s proposed CCS pipeline project.
The company one year later, in October 2025, received a notice from the DOE granting an extension of the conditional commitment until April 16, 2026. The notice indicated the DOE is open to modifying the loan guarantee to support a smaller-scale 30 MMgy ethanol-to-jet project adjacent to the existing Gevo North Dakota ethanol plant. Gevo aims to make a final investment decision on that project, referred to as Project North Star, by the end of the year, according to Bloom.
Gevo reported revenue of $45 million for the fourth quarter, and $161 million for the full year 2025. Loss from operations was $2.2 million for the fourth quarter.