Gevo, Inc. has completed the sale transaction of Agri-Energy in Luverne, Minnesota to A.E. Innovation, LLC. The transaction includes Agri’s 18-million-gallon-per-year ethanol-production facility and a portion of the adjacent land.

Gevo retained assets at the site 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.

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.

A.E., 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. A.E. 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.