Natchez Project

Our proposed Rentech Strategic Fuels and Chemicals Complex, or Natchez Project, will be located in Adams County, Mississippi, near the city of Natchez. The current project design contemplates using petcoke and biomass feedstocks to produce a total of approximately 30,000 barrels per day of synthetic fuels and chemicals and export over 120 megawatts of clean base-load power. We have completed the feasibility study for this project and additional engineering work to finalize technology selection for the facility. We engaged CH2M Hill to serve as our environmental consultant to assist us with the filing of our permits for the Natchez Project.

In December 2009, Rentech signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with thirteen domestic and international passenger and cargo carriers, Air Canada, AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express, JetBlue Airways, Lufthansa German Airlines, Mexicana Airlines, Polar Air Cargo, United Airlines, UPS Airlines and US Airways that contains terms that are anticipated to serve as the basis of a possible definitive purchase agreement by these carriers for the Natchez Project’s entire synthetic jet fuel production of approximately 16,600 barrels per day.

We own an approximately 450-acre property located adjacent to the Mississippi River near Natchez, Mississippi, which is the intended site of this facility. The site has access to multiple feedstocks and product distribution channels including rail, pipeline, barge and roads.

Equally important, we believe the Natchez Project has the best carbon reduction solution of any planned commercial scale synthetic transportation fuels plant in the United States. We have contracted to sell all of the carbon dioxide to be captured at this proposed facility to Denbury Onshore, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Denbury Resources Inc. (“Denbury”). Carbon dioxide purchased under the long-term contract would be used for enhanced oil recovery to produce otherwise unrecoverable oil at Denbury’s Cranfield oil field in Southwest Mississippi as well as at the company’s oil fields within the greater Gulf Coast area. The Cranfield oil field is currently hosting a U.S Department of Energy (“DOE”)-sponsored carbon dioxide sequestration project that is the first in the nation to inject more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide into an underground rock formation followed by additional injections into the saline portion of the reservoir, more than 10,000 feet below the surface. The sequestration of carbon dioxide captured at the Natchez facility would enable the fuels produced at the facility to have a life-cycle carbon footprint lower than that of petroleum-derived fuels, as concluded in a study conducted by the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory. The DOE study is accessible on our Publications Page.

The Natchez Project has the potential to contribute significantly to domestic energy security and economic growth within the state of Mississippi and its surrounding regions. The proposed facility can provide a significant supply of synthetic jet fuel that meets or exceeds existing fuel standards in quality and emissions. A recent economic impact study completed by Alcorn State University concluded that the Natchez Project would create over 2,100 direct jobs and over 3,400 indirect jobs during the project’s construction phase. Once operational, the facility is expected to create over 400 high paying direct jobs and over 3,200 indirect jobs according to the study. The economic impact study is accessible on our Publications Page.