Low-carbon Jet Fuel Company Foresees Huge Investment in Western North Dakota
Published by Todd Bush on June 11, 2025
WEST FARGO, N.D. — The demand for jet fuel is going up. The demand for gasoline is going down.
That’s the simple explanation from Chris Ryan, the president and chief operating officer of Gevo, on why the company plans to add a sustainable aviation fuel plant to the corn-based ethanol plant it purchased at Richardton in southwest North Dakota.
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Chris Ryan, right, president and chief operating officer of renewable fuels company Gevo, speaks June 10, 2025, in West Fargo, N.D., at the Midwest Ag Summit. At left is Greg Lardy, vice president for agriculture at North Dakota State University. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
Ryan said the low-carbon jet fuel won’t come cheap – throwing out a ballpark figure of $500 million for a potential project still years down the road.
Ryan spoke Tuesday in Fargo at the Midwest Agriculture Summit hosted by the The Chamber of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo.
Colorado-based Gevo bought the Red Trail Energy ethanol plant at Richardton last year.
The Red Trail plant was the first ethanol producer in the country to implement carbon sequestration — capturing carbon dioxide from the plant’s corn fermentation tanks and pumping it into permanent underground storage.
The CO2 sequestration is key in lowering the carbon intensity score of the plant and for sustainable jet fuel production. Low-carbon fuels can fetch a higher price than traditional liquid fuels.
"We could make gasoline, but it’s a diminishing market,” Ryan said. “So jet fuel is a kind of sexy thing to talk about these days.”
In an interview with the North Dakota Monitor, Ryan said there is plenty of room to add a jet fuel plant at the 500-acre Richardton site. He said the plant would add about 50 jobs, about the same number that the ethanol plant employs.
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