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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gasification Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (552)	9/14/2006 5:00:50 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1740

Syntroleum - Ashley, what I didn't like about Syntroleum was their air blown gasification. In reading their promotional material, it seemed to me they were greatly exaggerating the cost and dangers of using oxygen in gasification. At a time when advances in cryogenic technology were reducing the costs of seperating oxygen from air, some of the same advances that have greatly reduced the costs of liquefy natural gas, they were claiming that oxygen was a big expense. The problem with using air instead of oxygen in the gasification is that dry air is 77% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. When you use air instead pure oxygen in the gasification, the synthetic gas, composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is diluted in a large volume of nitrogen. Syntroleum managed to get their Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to work effectively with this nitrogen diluted systhetic gas, but this only works if you don't have to clean up the synthetic gas after gasification. So its only good if you use sweet natural gas as feed stock. If you use sour gas, petroleum coke, coal, municipal solid waste, biomass, etc. where you have to clean the gas after gasification to remove sulfer, metals, dust and other contaminants before you can use it, the great volume of nitrogen in the gas stream raises the costs. Also if you have nitrogen present with oxygen in the high temperature enviroment of the gasifier you will have more NOx in the output gas stream than if you had used straight oxygen. If you are operating a barge off the shore of Nigeria then you don't have to worry about NOx emmisions but for other applications NOx is another pollutant you have to treat. The original air blown Syntroleum process may make sense in the saving of space and capital expense for small off shore barge mounted units using stranded natural gas but not for other feed stocks or large land based facilities. Syntroleum was unique in using air instead of oxygen. No other GTL or CTL technology provider considers it advantagious to use it. Their niche GTL technology has boxed them in. Even in Nigeria their niche is growing smaller. Nigeria now has LNG liquefaction facilities for exporting LNG and has started contruction of an onshore GTL plant. So the niche in Nigeria now is offshore gas finds too small to make it worthwhile to built a pipeline to the shore facilities but big enough to justify the construction of a GTL barge. Syntroleum's destiny is no longer in their own hands. Their fate rests with the decision of their AJE partners to drill another well. If that falls through, what have they got? An an MOU to build a CTL plant in Germany. In Syntroleum's favor they do have access to a lot of XOM's FT technology as the result of the settlement of a patent dispute. As I understand it the German CTL plant will use oxygen not air in the gasifier, so what does Syntroleum bring to the table in that project? Only their catalyst work, access to XOM FT technology and pilot plant experiance, certainly no capital, IMHO. Like you, I will wait for them to actually be near completion of a commercial CTL or GTL project before buying.

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (552)	9/15/2006 5:14:52 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1740

Syntroleum closed up 19.66% on five times normal volume after this story was released. Syntroleum's Ultra-Clean Jet Fuel to be Tested in Landmark B-52 Flight Demo Friday September 15, 11:45 am ET biz.yahoo.com TULSA, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 15, 2006--Syntroleum (Nasdaq:SYNM - News), a leader in Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology, announced today that its ultra-clean jet fuel will be tested in a landmark B-52 flight demo on the morning of September 19, 2006 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This event signifies the first time that FT jet fuel has been tested in a B-52 flight demo. The FT aviation fuel will be blended with traditional JP-8 jet fuel for the flight test. Syntroleum's FT jet fuel stems from more than five years of considerable research and development efforts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), focused on producing a high performance alternative fuel for military applications. The flight test is part of the DOD's Assured Fuels Initiative, an effort to develop secure domestic sources for the military's energy needs. "This scheduled flight demonstration will be a significant and historical accomplishment for the company. We believe that successful testing of our fuel will provide the military with the experience necessary to consider long-term off-take agreements of fully tested FT fuels and we expect to meet the military's supply and quality needs. Through this program, we have clearly demonstrated that the military can depend on Syntroleum to meet its stringent fuel quality specifications under its Assured Fuels Initiative. Nobody else can make this statement," said Jack Holmes, president and CEO of Syntroleum. The jet fuel being tested was produced from a natural gas feedstock, but Syntroleum believes the fuel can also be produced from the vast domestic coal resources. The military is searching for a coal-based fuel for aviation use which could put the United States on a path to a more secure energy future. "Having access to adequate supplies of jet fuel is a national security issue, and with an assured source, price fluctuations are reduced which provides stable planning and budgeting," said Bill Harrison, a fuels expert with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Besides military applications, successful testing of Syntroleum's FT jet fuel could lead to opportunities with commercial airlines. "In light of high energy prices, we believe that successful military testing of our fuel could motivate commercial airlines to vigorously pursue FT aviation products for use in their fleet operations. This B-52 flight test could give birth to a whole new way of providing ultra-clean fuel to the aviation industry," Holmes said. Previous research and testing by the military on Syntroleum's FT fuels have shown superior performance characteristics compared to aviation fuels produced by refining crude oil. Particulate matter and soot emissions have shown a reduction of greater than 90 percent depending upon the turbine engine type. The reduced particulate matter and soot emissions significantly improve engine efficiency, performance and overall air quality. Syntroleum has produced more than 400,000 gallons of ultra-clean fuels at its Port of Catoosa facility near Tulsa, Okla. Besides Syntroleum's work with the DOD, the company has successfully tested its fuel in U.S. National Park Service vehicles and metrobuses in Washington D.C. and Tulsa through the U.S. Department of Transportation's ultra clean fuels program. ========== Could it really be up just on this story? The B-52 story isn't even new news. Don't the buyers know the Port of Catoosa facility is being closed and the workers laid off? Story stocks are funny things. one press release and they're off to the races. My WAG is some group bought up a lot today and now they're going to start pumping and pushing it using the B-52 story.