Gevo announced it has launched sales of renewable isobutanol to Brenntag Canada Inc. (Brenntag Canada), a member of the Brenntag group companies for distribution into the solvents, oil & gas, mining and specialty chemicals markets. The initial market entry is focused on Canada. Brenntag Canada has purchased truckload quantities of isobutanol from Gevo for distribution to targeted customers.

Brenntag, by the way, is a well-known major global chemical distributor.

Brenntag Canada said its customers seek bio-based options in the solvents and specialty chemicals markets. Gevo’s renewable isobutanol offers a a premium priced bio-based option, particularly for the fast growing oil, gas, and mining industries. This is an interesting quote from Brenntag as Gevo also noted that its renewable isobutanol reportedly “competes on price and performance with petroleum-based isobutanol”.

The solvent market actually can command premiums depending on the applications it is used for. There seems to be more and more renewable-based alternatives in this sector and this is worthwhile doing more analysis, which hopefully, I’ll be able to do at this month’s Bio-materials newsletter at Tecnon OrbiChem.

It will also be interesting to know how isobutanol is being used in oil, gas and mining industries. With ethanol currently being pressured from very low gasoline price, it will be good for Gevo to focus more on isobutanol production and marketing at least in the first half of this year.