01-03-2022

Gevo investigates proprietary dehydration technology at hte

hte — the high throughput experimentation company - was selected in March of 2021 by Gevo Inc., a pioneer in sustainable, low-carbon biofuel and chemicals, to advance their understanding of the catalytic dehydration of biogenic isobutanol to form isobutylene. This is a key step in the chemical pathway for producing sustainable aviation fuel and high-octane renewable gasoline.

The scope of the study included accelerated catalyst deactivation under a multitude of different conditions and the effect of biogenic feed impurities in a 16-fold high throughput test that mapped the impacts of relevant impurities and operating conditions.

Isobutanol dehydration under relevant conditions indicates sufficient catalyst stability at a commercial scale. hte’s high throughput systems allow for a very fast mapping of different catalysts or reaction parameters. Supported by hte’s proprietary software solutions, experiments can be executed and analyzed in a fully automated and flexible way. Consequently, the evaluation of large amount of data sets is shortened immensely which allows the customers to access knowledge very fast.

Dr. Chris Ryan, Chief Operating Officer at Gevo says, “The study at hte provided insights in the isobutanol dehydration reaction beyond Gevo’s expectations, further strengthening Gevo’s technical knowledge and capabilities as they relate to the production of renewable fuels. Thus, strengthening the successful execution of commercial-scale projects.”

Wolfram Stichert, CEO at hte, comments, “high throughput experimentation is an efficient tool to accelerate the development of new catalytic processes such as low- carbon biofuel or chemicals within a short time. Therefore, hte is proud of supporting Gevo, a pioneer in sustainable fuels.”