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bunch of capital dollars on our facility," Hitchcock said.
• The Redfield plant is a co-op owned by 650 members, and Hitchcock has said Gevo is paying for the $30 million retrofit in exchange for an equity interest in the partnership. The motivation for members to make the switch was that the demand for butanol goes well beyond its role as a fuel additive.
• Gruber said the company wants to get the process right before starting the conversion in South Dakota.
• "All the effort's on Luverne," Gruber said. "Once we get it worked out, we'll turn our attention to Redfield but it doesn't change anything fundamentally."
• Butanol has traditionally been used as paint thinner, cleaner and adhesive, and it can be converted into plastics and solvents. As a fuel additive, it contains more energy than ethanol and could be blended into existing cars at higher percentages.
• Gevo's process uses yeasts to turn the sugars in corn or other plant matter into isobutanol and a device that then separates the isobutanol.
• Gruber said the commercial-scale Luverne plant spent 17 weeks producing and shipping biobutanol in railcar quantities, but it hasn't been able to achieve the consistency in quality and quantity that he'd like to see.
• He said the plant can produce and sell ethanol to maximize the company's cash flow while the technology team works on isobutanol related production changes to improve efficiency.
• "I don't like running the plant in isobutanol production mode below break-even production rate," Gruber said. "It's a waste of money, especially when I have alternatives."
• Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James said in a research report that Gevo's move was "just the latest example of the industry's frustrating but inevitable growing pains."
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Woman killed by freight train near SD-Iowa Border
• NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Authorities have identified a 42-year-old woman killed by a freight train near the South Dakota-Iowa border.
• Police say 42-year-old Janelle Sorenson of South Sioux City, Neb., intentionally stepped in front of the train around 5:30 p.m. Monday.
• KTIV television reports (http://bit.ly/RTftAj ) that the call came in from the Triple Crown Casino in North Sioux City, S.D., where several people standing outside said they saw it happen.
• One witness told KTIV she saw a person walk in front of the Burlington Northern (Continued on page 26)
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