Red Trail Energy shareholders approve sale to Gevo

(Jeff Beach – North Dakota Monitor) – Shareholders of North Dakota’s Red Trail Energy have approved the sale of its ethanol plant and carbon capture and storage to Colorado-based Gevo, which has plans to make sustainable aviation fuel at the site.

Gevo announced in September that it had a deal to buy Red Trail Energy at Richardton in southwest North Dakota for $210 million.

The deal is expected to close by the first quarter of 2025, Gevo said Wednesday in a news release announcing the decision.  Gevo said there was “overwhelming approval” by Red Trail shareholders.

Gevo is developing a sustainable aviation fuel plant at Lake Preston, South Dakota. Gevo is hoping to use the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline for carbon capture and storage but Summit has yet to obtain a permit for its pipeline in South Dakota.

Gevo CEO Patrick Gruber said in a news release that the Red Trail purchase “mitigates risk around carbon sequestration for our Net-Zero 1 plant site in South Dakota.”

The Red Trail site guarantees that Gevo will have a plant with carbon capture and storage if that is not an option in South Dakota.

Red Trail was the first ethanol plant in the country to capture carbon from the fermentation process as it turns corn into ethanol. The captured carbon is permanently stored underground near the plant, taking advantage of the geology in western North Dakota that is suitable for carbon sequestration.

“The infrastructure and resources that we will have acquired in North Dakota offer tremendous flexibility,” Gruber said.

Low-carbon ethanol is the basis for sustainable aviation fuel. The ethanol industry is hopeful that low-carbon liquid biofuels will demand a premium price that will eventually benefit corn growers, too.

Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions has obtained pipeline permits in Iowa and North Dakota and approval of a short segment of its Minnesota route could come Thursday. Summit’s route also includes Nebraska, which has no state agency that issues carbon pipeline permits.

North Dakota’s Industrial Commission is considering Summit’s CO2 storage site plan Thursday.