Rentech Proceeds With Purchase Of Site For Commercial Scale Synthetic Fuels Facility

Los Angeles, CA - Rentech, Inc. recently announced that it has received approval from the Adams County Board of Supervisors to proceed with the acquisition of approximately 450 acres in Adams County, Mississippi. Rentech intends to build its Natchez Strategic Fuels and Chemicals Center at the site. The facility will produce Rentech's ultra-clean synthetic transportation fuels and specialty chemicals.

D. Hunt Ramsbottom, Rentech's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are pleased to have located this site for our synthetic fuels and chemicals facility. The site is ideally located with access to multiple feedstocks (pet coke, coal and biomass), central to several product distribution channels including a CO2 pipeline that services enhanced oil recovery in the region and outside of the direct impact zone of Gulf Coast hurricanes."

Mr. Ramsbottom continued, "The purchase of this site is instrumental in moving this project forward. By using domestic resources with carbon capture and geological sequestration, facilities such as this one will play a critical role in increasing our nation's energy security while reducing our nation's greenhouse gas footprint."

Based on a study conducted by the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, with carbon capture and sequestration as well as a biomass co-feed, the carbon dioxide emissions from the production of fuels from the Fischer-Tropsch process can be 20 percent lower than those generated in the production of petroleum-derived diesel.

Woody Allen, Chairman of the Natchez Adams County Development Authority, said, "Natchez-Adams County is excited about Rentech's decision to commit to exercise the option on the International Paper site. This project will be a great enhancement to the economic progress of not only Natchez-Adams County but to all of southwest Mississippi."

Using the patented Rentech process, the Natchez Strategic Fuels and Chemicals Center will be designed to use petroleum coke or coal supplemented with biomass as gasification feedstocks. The project will initially produce 25,000 barrels per day of ultra clean synthetic fuels and specialty chemicals and will be expandable to 50,000 barrels per day. The proposed facility will sell the carbon dioxide captured during the production process to Denbury Resources for enhanced oil recovery and geological sequestration.

SOURCE: Rentech, Inc.