Plans for the construction of a coal-to-liquids plant in Natchez are on schedule, a spokesman for Rentech Inc., said Monday.

Joe Regnery, project manager of the plant that could be built as early as 2011 if plans go according to schedule, said he plans to be in Natchez in January for further engineering work, including environmental evaluations, at the proposed site of the plant.

Rentech, a Colorado-based research and development company, plans a fuel plant in Natchez that has been estimated as a $1 billion to $2 billion project.

The plant would employ 200 people and produce up to 10,000 barrels of clean alternative fuel per day.

The 2006 session of the Mississippi Legislature approved $15 million for site work at the former Belwood Country Club property, where the plant will be built.

Recent news of an agreement between Rentech and a community in southwestern West Virginia for a fuel plant similar to the Natchez plant has no effect on the Natchez plans, Regnery said.

Mingo County Redevelopment Authority in Williamson, W.Va., and Rentech signed an agreement earlier this month for the development of a fuel plant to be located there.

“What it communicates is that we have a plan, and we’re moving on with our business plan,” Regnery said.

The company now is concentrating on the plant at East Dubuque, Ill. The Natchez plant is next on the program.

In a recent statement, D. Hunt Ramsbottom, president and CEO of Rentech, said that the company aggressively executed its strategic plan in 2006.

“The company is fully engaged in its engineering work for the conversion of its East Dubuque, Ill., plant into an integrated clean fuels and ammonia production facility utilizing gasification,” he said.

Ramsbottom said the company is moving forward with its joint development agreement with Peabody Energy and “is continuing to develop a clean fuels facility in Natchez as well as other initiatives.”

Woody Allen, chairman of the Natchez-Adams County Economic Development Authority, said he continues to be positive about the partnership with Rentech.

“The West Virginia project actually enhances what they are doing in Natchez,” Allen said.

“The Natchez project is coming right along, right behind the East Dubuque project,” he said.

Coal and/or petroleum coke products will be transported by river to the Natchez port for use at the Rentech plant.

The coal-to-liquid process releases carbon dioxide, which can be captured and marketed to companies recovering oil in old wells in Southwest Mississippi.

The carbon dioxide is injected into the old wells to enhance the process.

Rentech was incorporated in 1981 and has developed technologies based on the Fischer-Tropsch process for making clean fuel products.