Rentech Successfully Produces Ultra Clean Synthetic Fuels at Colorado Facility
Thursday August 7, 9:00 am ET
biz.yahoo.com
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rentech, Inc. (AMEX:RTK - News) today announced that the Company has successfully produced synthetic fuels at its Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colorado.
Source: Rentech, Inc.
· Rentech's Synthetic Fuels & Chemicals Facility Team in Commerce City, CO (Photo: Business Wire).
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Rentech’s PDU is the only synthetic fuels facility in the United States today producing transportation fuels. The facility is designed to produce approximately 420 gallons per day of synthetic jet and diesel fuels and demonstrates the successful design, construction and operation of a fully-integrated synthetic fuels facility utilizing the Rentech Process.
D. Hunt Ramsbottom, President and CEO of Rentech, said, “The initial production run of ultra clean synthetic fuels at our Product Demonstration Unit has been very successful and demonstrates the strength of the Rentech Process. Once product samples from the PDU are tested and approved by our potential customers, licensees and partners, we believe we will be well positioned to enter into contracts with them.”
Commenting on Rentech’s successful production of synthetic fuels, Jim May, President and CEO of Air Transport Association of America (ATA), said, “We congratulate Rentech in their achievement and applaud this step toward deployment of their alternative jet fuel technology using diverse and abundant sources. With our economy and U.S. airlines both suffering greatly from high oil prices and reliance upon imports, the Air Transport Association and its member airlines are leading the way in promoting the development of cleaner, lower cost jet fuels to meet the industry’s operational needs and environmental goals. Our industry is encouraged by the fact that test samples from Rentech will now be available to enable us to confirm that their products will meet our environmental, safety and economic requirements and we anxiously await the broad availability of such new fuels in the market place.”
The Rentech Process is a patented and proprietary technology that converts synthesis gas from carbon-bearing resources into hydrocarbons that can be processed and upgraded into ultra clean synthetic jet and diesel fuels. Rentech’s Colorado facility provides a platform for the production of these products from a wide variety of resources, including waste materials, into fuels that could have a potentially carbon neutral or even carbon negative footprint. These fuels are also cleaner burning and more efficient than petroleum-derived fuels. The PDU is currently producing synthetic fuels from natural gas, and once gasification is added, it will also be capable of producing fuels from biomass and other fossil resources.
Rentech believes the design of the PDU will verify the engineering parameters for scale-up to commercial operations. In addition, the PDU provides the Company with valuable engineering, design and process knowledge that will be transferred to the planning and construction of its commercial scale facilities.
Achieving production at the PDU is the result of the successful operation and integration of all processes at the facility, including the steam methane reformer for the production of synthesis gas; the conversion of the synthesis gas in the Rentech reactor into clean hydrocarbons; the separation of the Rentech catalyst from the wax produced from the reactor; and the processing and upgrading of the hydrocarbons into ultra-clean synthetic fuels using UOP hydrocracking and hydrotreating technologies. Rentech and UOP maintain an alliance which provides a one-stop solution to developers of commercial synthetic fuels facilities worldwide for synthesis gas conversion and product upgrading.
With the PDU successfully operating, the Company will focus on confirming and refining the design parameters of the Rentech Process during longer-term production runs as well as the effect of various operating parameters on product yields and composition.
Commenting on the success at the PDU, Dr. Harold Wright, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Rentech, said, “As a result of the hard work of our skilled technical and operating teams at the PDU, today Rentech has the only operating synthetic transportation fuels facility in the United States. I am pleased to report that the catalytic reaction in the Rentech reactor thus far has exceeded our expectations.” Dr. Wright continued, “We are able to produce a quality of syngas at the PDU that is typically created from solid feedstock, which we believe demonstrates that the Rentech catalyst can successfully react with syngas streams from a wide variety of feedstock including natural gas, biomass and fossil based resources.”
About Rentech, Inc.
Rentech, Inc. (www.rentechinc.com), incorporated in 1981, provides clean energy solutions. The Rentech Process is a patented and proprietary technology that converts synthesis gas from biomass and fossil resources into hydrocarbons that can be processed and upgraded into ultra-clean synthetic fuels, specialty waxes and chemicals. These energy resources include natural gas, biomass, municipal solid waste, petroleum coke and coal. Rentech Energy Midwest Corporation manufactures and sells fertilizer products including ammonia, urea ammonia nitrate, urea granule and urea solution to the corn-belt region.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about matters such as the production of fuels at the Product Demonstration Unit (“PDU”) and potential opportunities and benefits resulting from the operation of and production at the PDU with customers, licensees and partners. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and actual results may differ materially as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including that commercial scale synthetic fuels facilities may not achieve the same results as those demonstrated at the PDU or may experience technological and mechanical problems. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements are set forth in the Company’s press releases and periodic public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available via Rentech’s web site at www.rentechinc.com. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release, and Rentech does not undertake to revise or update these forward-looking statements, except to the extent that it is required to do so under applicable law.
For more information
For more information please contact: Julie Dawoodjee, Director of Investor Relations, Rentech, Inc. at 310-571-9800, extension 341 or by email at ir@rentk.com.
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Contact:
Rentech, Inc.
Julie Dawoodjee, Director of Investor Relations
310-571-9800, extension 341
ir@rentk.com
Source: Rentech, Inc.
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Rentech opens synthetic fuel plant in Colorado
Wednesday August 6, 6:27 pm ET
Energy company Rentech opens synthetic diesel and jet fuel plant in Colorado
biz.yahoo.com
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) -- Energy supplier Rentech Inc. says it has opened a synthetic diesel and jet fuel plant in Colorado which is now the only operating one of its kind in the country.
Los Angeles-based Rentech said Wednesday its demonstration plant in Commerce City, Colo. is designed to produce 420 gallons a day -- a mere trickle compared with the needs of airlines and trucking companies.
Company officials said their natural gas-based fuel will be sold to the Department of Defense and private companies for further testing. That testing could lead to certifying the fuel for commercial use in the airline industry.
Airlines have pressed for synthetic alternatives to expensive petroleum-based jet fuel, which jumped in price during the past few years and slashed profits from the industry.
Synthetic fuel has yet to be certified for U.S. airlines. However, a coalition of airline, manufacturing and airport associations wants standards for a 50 percent synthetic jet fuel approved by the end of the year.
Other U.S. companies have produced synthetic jet fuels in the past for research purposes, but they've since shut down, said National Energy Technology Laboratory spokesman Joe Culver. |
