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Rentech shows off production
Published Friday, August 8, 2008
NATCHEZ — More than 1,100 miles away in Commerce City, Colo., Rentech’s workers are starting to see the fruits of their labor.
Rentech’s product demonstration unit in Colorado has started making the same ultra-clean synthetic fuel the company plans to manufacture in Natchez.
And the fuel production represents an important first for the company.
The company’s director of investor relations, Julie Dawoodjee, said the Colorado plant represents the first time Rentech has been able to make their fuel from start to finish in one location utilizing their entire process.
“The fuels we have produced are test worthy,” she said. “We’re extremely enthusiastic and upbeat.”
While Rentech only announced its capability to produce this week, on Thursday Dawoodjee said the plant has been able to make the fuel for “several days.”
But other details, including how long the company has been producing fuel for, are not being disclosed yet.
Dawoodjee would not say how much fuel the plant could produce in a day, nor how much they have produced to date, but did say that they have yet to reach their 10-barrel a day goal.
Dawoodjee said the company has a focus on quality, not quantity.
“We want to be able to ensure the quality of the product,” she said.
And Dawoodjee said the fuel produced is meeting the standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials, a voluntary standards testing organization.
Though Rentech is not disclosing every detail about the plant, Dawoodjee said the plant is fulfilling its most important role — making usable fuel.
“The product that’s been produced can be sent to potential customers,” she said.
Again Dawoodjee would not say how much fuel, if any, had been sent out for testing but did say several groups have expressed interest in the product.
Dawoodjee said representatives from the U.S. Air Force, the airline industries and some chemical companies have been in talks with Rentech and have expressed a desire to test their product.
However, Rentech’s Senior Vice President and chief technology officer, Harold Wright, said by the end of the calendar year Rentech will have sent out thousands of gallons of fuel to be tested.
“It’s a very exciting time,” Wright said.
And for Rentech, the testing of those fuels is extremely important, Wright said.
Rentech’s plan is simple, send out samples of their clean burning diesel, then get clients to enter into purchase contracts with Rentech, Wright said.
“We want to have contracts signed and ready,” Wright said.
Wright said those pre-signed contracts will help to prove Rentech’s safety in investing in Natchez.
Contrasting Natchez, the Colorado is a small scale version of what scheduled locally.
Once fully operational, the Natchez plant is poised to produce 25,000 barrels a day.
In addition, the Colorado plant was built at a cost of between $80-$85 million, recent cost estimates have put up to a $4.5 billion price tag on the Natchez plant.
Also contrasting the Natchez plant is the fuel, also called feedstock, in Colorado their currently using natural gas to make fuel.
In earlier plans, Rentech has stated their intent to use petroleum coke to make fuel at the Natchez plant.
However, Wright said, the process works the same no matter the feedstock used in the conversion.
Wright said within months the Colorado plant should be using petroleum coke, and other resources, as feedstock to make fuel.
Comments
Posted by texasranger (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 1:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
????? 10 gallons a day.....1,100 miles away??? Yahoo, Mass production. That would run a 18 wheeler getting 5 miles to the gallon...50 miles WOW....Only in America...Enron rides again.1,000 miles away. We must wait to see this miracle unfold at the former IPCO plant..Tune in next year for more exciting progress
Posted by shedevil (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 5:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
wow...thats really great!!! it will only take them 22 days to produce enough fuel for an eighteen wheeler to drive the 1100 miles.that should help drop fuel prices.i guess it will only take rentech a couple of 1000s yrs to see a profit.
Posted by oilfieldtrash (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 6 a.m. (Suggest removal)
10 bbls, Not ten gallons. There is 42 gallons per 1 bbls. So they are producing 420 gals a day. Which I understand is not a whole lot, but maybe they are bringing it up slow. They might have alot of kinks to correct and watch out for.
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
love the name oilfieldtrash...
Posted by mike8427 (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 7:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
wow Tex, glad to see you can tell the difference between the quantity of a barrel and a gallon.
Posted by MSroots (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 7:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Folks,
Rentech has stated from the beginning that their Colorado facility is a pilot scale facility whereby they will develop and prove the technology. The fact that they are producing 10 gal/day with a complete pilot scale process is great news. Your silly analogies to Enron and how many miles this will drive a truck are a poor reflection on your understanding of what it takes to develop a technology. Pilot scale facilites are small, expensive to build and incredibly costly to operate on a per pound basis, but they are absolutely necessary to deliver a new technology or product to the market. It may very well take them another year to work out all the gaps in performance, such that their economics for building the Natchez plant become viable. Without this "proving" work they will never get investors to fund a $4.5B investment. Instead of lobbing ignorant sounding accusations at Rentech and the people taking the huge risk to develop something that would have incredible impact on Natchez, try supporting them with encouraging words and attitudes.
Posted by maple (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 8:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
MSroots These brainless bloggers have the same reaction towards any articles in the Democrat. They are just very bored people that wake up every morning to the only thing that stimulates them.. I dont think anyone takes them serious..
Posted by redusmfan (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am glad to see that they are making some progress on the product. I hope they will make plenty of it and hope that soon they will make the 10 bbls a day quota in the test plant . I hope they do spend 4 billion on a plant in Natchez. Natchez needs some real industry to come back to help revive the local economy. The construction alone will revive the economy for a couple of years.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
you guys come to your senses please
if you did your homework you'd know that this is a DEMONSTRATION plant in Colorado, as per the published plan of Rentech, merely to fine tune their process, NOT to mass produce
This is great news
Their stock will be going up now, the only thing going on that could mess up Rentech's plans are 1) hydrogen produced from electrolysis of water, fascinating process which can allegedly be installed with a relatively inexpensive contraption in any car/truck and will actually be in stock cars soon 2) the new oil discovered in Montana that is allegedly a vast reserve 5 times the size of the big oil field in Saudi Arabia.
Interesting....
yep, I just checked Rentech stock and as I thought the price is now approaching $3, which is the highest it's been in a while now, it's still a good time to buy Rentech, it's possible this stock could go to $20 by 2010, depending on the world energy situation, and our domestic supply situation also. That will largely depend on how we vote coming up later this year. If we continue to put Democrats in office, we will see higher oil prices (no new exploration and a continued decreased supply), that will be good for Rentech and our local economy somewhat (we will have an offset of higher prices to all consumers), but bad for the country as a whole, plus we'll see more terrorist proliferation, and nuclear weapons introduced into the MiddleEast, plus probably an EMP strike on the USA from Iran. If we vote in Republicans we will have lower oil prices, but Rentech will still do ok as the price will not plummet quickly, there will still be high demand of oil worldwide giving alternative fuel production by hydrocarbon conversion a place in the market, plus more preemptive strike on terrorists and probably Iran to save the world from chaos and worldwide war. My opinion.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 10:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
MSroots - ahh a voice of wisdom amongst the ignorant masses
how refreshing
thank you, I thought all was lost
but there is hope, keep thinking my friend and share your wisdom without reservation
The best thing we can do if we want to help
Is BUY RENTECH STOCK while it is still so low, I'm trying my best to convince my financial management (my wife) to allocate some funds for this. I keep thinking if we had bought some when it was down at 80 cents, ooooohhhhh that makes me so frustrated. But it's still low. If you look at the new start up oil companies out west in Montana, they are all moving up in their stock value quickly. Rentech will do the same. We all know a process such as Rentech has will ALWAYS have a place in the market from now on, unless the oil price plummets, which could happen, but probably won't. I think most of the big shots want the USA to keep buying foreign oil until it's GONE, before we start using up our own vast reserves that we've haven't even touched yet. From what I can glean out of the available info there are vast reserves off the coast of CA, FL, up north in Alaska, and a huge reserve up in Montana (said to be 5 times larger than Saudia Arabia ever had!!!) This is great news. World population is not getting smaller, and the economies of China, India, etc are gobbling up oil and do not have much interest in helping out with global warming it seems. They are more concerned with developing their societies and bring up their standard of living at the present time.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
you're right on Red
Posted by Fonzarosa (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 7:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm buying 100,000 shares tomorrow Rentech is on the rise
Posted by Bifflefan16 (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 8:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Some of these people that leave postings on here are complete brainless poopheads. If your going to leave a posting on something, at least read the whole article before you let what should spill out the bottom end of your body come out of your mouth... Gheeze
Posted by sideline (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 10:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Posted by Bifflefan16 (anonymous) on August 8, 2008 at 8:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Some of these people that leave postings on here are complete brainless poopheads. If your going to leave a posting on something, at least read the whole article before you let what should spill out the bottom end of your body come out of your mouth... Gheeze
Thank you.
Posted by skippydammit (anonymous) on August 9, 2008 at 5:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Nattering nabobs of negativity seem to rule the discussion forums
of this paper way too often and particularly in this case !
Wonder if these negativites have actually read the articles sometimes.
How can a sub-kindergarden comprehension level get so twisted?
Also, for the record, these are comments are not "blogging" and those
commenting are not "bloggers".
Bloggers actually think out and sometimes post thoughtful commentary in a "blog".
This is a discussion forum. Big difference. Duh.
Wonder why these comments are so negative so often ?
Could it be that those commenting so
often and so negatively
have nothing better to do in
their sad, pitiful lives?
Just a thought or two....:)
Posted by texasranger (anonymous) on August 9, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
On Wednesday John Rivera was arrested on charges of grand theft above $20,000.
The warrant for Rivera’s arrest was filed in West Palm Beach, Fla., however Rivera was arrested in Baytown, Texas where he currently serves as CEO of Sustainable Power Corporation.
While Cutler said he did not know who filed the charges he said they were “in relation to a previous company he (Rivera) was a officer of in Palm Bach.”
Cutler said he was confident the matter would be rectified in a few days.
Rivera is the CEO of U.S. Sustainable Energy Corporation, a company that leased a warehouse near the Adams County Port in 2006.
At the time Rivera claimed his company would eventually make 1.5 million gallons of biofuel a day.
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