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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Rentech(RTK) - gas-to-liquids and cleaner fuel -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Al Dorsa who wrote (6050)	7/9/1998 7:10:00 PM
From: John M	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 14347

Al, Iron catalysts make olefins, cobalt catalysts make alkanes. Olefins require additional refining (ie hydrotreating) before they have significant value as a blending stock for fuels. To hydrotreat, takes another expensive piece of equipment which will take up room on a barge or just plain cost more. Hydrotreating no big deal in a refinery, done all the time, have the extra hydrogen available, etc. Iron catalysts also make heavier hydrocarbons than does colbalt. To make diesel from these hydrocarbons must crack them back. Cobalt makes long chains too but less than iron does so hydrocracker is smaller. Iron catalyst's make CO2 whereas cobalt does not. CO2 must be removed adding another piece of equipment that the colbalt plant doesn't have. RNTK's plant in India makes wax. Nobody cares about olefins in wax. Wax market is very small though. As long as nobody else builds a big wax plant and upsets the supply/demand balance, wax prices very high - flood market and the whole thing falls apart. Iron catalyst cost less per pound but only lasts 30 days. Cobalt catalyst lasts 3-4 years. Iron must be disposed of continuously but is non-hazardous, cobalt is hazardous but only requires disposal once every three years. On a barge or at a remote site who is going to get rid of the iron everyday? At a refinery, the staff is there and you are in an established area. Bottom line - Cobalt plants are more efficient than iron plants and more cost effective for natural gas conversion. Cobalt doesn't work for refinery bottoms because H2/CO ratio is too low. Iron works on these low ratios because of the "water shift reaction" which allows the system to adjust the ratio to the desired 2:1 ratio needed to make alkanes. Long technical discussion here. Exxon, Shell, BP, SASOL have all come to this conclusion. Remember that Sasol has used iron catalysts for decades but will use cobalt on Quatar and Nigeria projects. If anybody would know it would be them. Also Exxon isn't the biggest oil company in the world for nothing with Shell close behind for no reason. These people are sharp. Hope that helps. Don't dispair though, refinery bottoms conversion appears to me to have superior economics and a better feedstock than natural gas GTL. It why I'm still in this thing (reduced position of course). JCM