Gevo signs $30M grant agreement with USDA for Farm-to-Flight Program

In Colorado, Gevo, Inc. has finalized and executed a Notice of Grant and Agreement Award with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant of up to $30 million for Gevo’s Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program. This program is aimed at tracking and quantifying the carbon-intensity (CI) impact of climate-smart practices while creating market incentives for low CI corn to help accelerate production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and low-CI ethanol.

With the leadership and support of the USDA, the company believes this grant will play a pivotal role in expediting the adoption of climate-smart farming practices and immediate market expansion of field-tracked, low-CI corn destined for SAF production in the area surrounding Gevo’s previously announced Net-Zero 1 (NZ1) SAF plant, currently under development in Lake Preston, South Dakota. The project will also accelerate the market adoption for climate-smart corn in close collaboration with Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE), a dry-mill corn-based ethanol facility located near Council Bluffs, Iowa. An important part of the project is our aim to enroll majority female-owned farms in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.