RENTECH PUTS SAND CREEK METHANOL PLANT CONVERSION ON HOLD

The Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) retrofit of Rentech’s Sand Creek methanol facility located north of Denver, Colorado, has been placed on hold due to high domestic natural gas prices. Rentech is actively working with Republic Financial Corporation on the development of Sand Creek as a pilot GTL facility or for use as some other cash generating business. Sand Creek as a real estate investment remains a valuable asset for Rentech while the company reconsiders methods for maximizing the value of the estate.

With natural gas prices around $5.50 per million BTU in April, the economics for continuing the project are not favorable.

At the beginning of the second quarter of this year, Rentech began a feasibility study funded by the Wyoming Business Council. Rentech’s work on this project should result in valuable insights into the use of State of Wyoming natural resources such as natural gas, and solid and liquid hydrocarbon feedstocks for making clean, sulfur-free GTL fuels and products.

In April the company announced it was beginning the second phase of the engineering study for a major chemical company for conversion of industrial off-gases into Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) products.

The plus or minus 15 percent cost study will include more detailed engineering and define the off-take agreements.

D. Yakobson of Rentech points out that the high cost of natural gas in the United States and other developed countries is forcing companies to find cheaper sources of domestic feedstocks, such as industrial off-gases, coal wastes or refinery bottoms, for conversion into F-T products.

The firm’s iron-based catalyst technology provides greater flexibility in using a variety of feedstocks than is provided by cobalt catalysts.