Fresh from its acquisition of industrial enzyme giant Danisco, DuPont is flexing its muscles once again in the biofuels and bio-based chemicals arena. DuPont, through its Butamax Advanced Biofuels joint venture with BP, filed an infringement lawsuit against Gevo, a biofuels company based in in Colorado. The basis for the infringement suit is DuPont’s recent US Patent 7,851,188 broadly covering the production of butanol and isobutanol. Since Gevo’s fortunes in biofuels are inextricably linked to isobutanol as its flagship product, Butamax’s action is a serious threat to Gevo and a shot across the bow of every aspiring biofuels producer that DuPont intends to be a serious player.
Butamax Advanced Biofuels is the joint venture between DuPont and BP focusing production of butanol, an advanced biofuel. Butamax has already announced its plans for commercial launch of butanol by 2013. Butanol has the advantage of being an advanced biofuel, meaning it is not ethanol and is better as a fuel than than ethanol). Perhaps it is only a coincidence, but at same time as Butamax announced its infringement suit against Gevo, aspiring ethanol producer Range Fuels announced layoffs and a temporary (?) shut down of its plant in Soperton, Georgia.
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