Product FAQs

Why are Rentech's products superior to other transportation fuels?

Our synthetic fuels are superior to conventional diesel fuel due to their environmental benefits. Our fuels have lower tailpipe emissions, are biodegradable, contain essentially no aromatics, and are virtually odorless. Our fuels are also colorless and leave no oily residue when spilled.

Our synthetic fuels can be used alone or blended with conventional diesel fuel. In addition, no changes are needed to fuel distribution systems or diesel engines in order to use our fuels. Unlike biodiesel fuels, synthetic diesel fuels will not freeze in winter and will not cause harm to the fuel system and engine.

Alternative fuels production facilities designed with the Rentech Process can capture up to approximately 80% of all CO₂ generated during the production process, resulting in lower CO₂ emissions than for conventional fuels. When the captured CO₂ is used for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), it is estimated that CO₂ from the production of one barrel of synthetic fuels will facilitate the recovery of an additional two barrels of otherwise unrecoverable crude.

What does it cost to produce a barrel of synthetic fuels?

The cost to produce a barrel of synthetic fuels is competitive with projections of future prices of petroleum products.

What are the key differences between synthetic fuels and ethanol?

Currently, commercially available ethanol is produced from food crops. Either corn, sugar cane, or other crops are fermented to produce ethanol, which is distilled from the mixture and dried to yield fuel grade ethanol. The volume of fuel available from this process is very limited and dependent on agriculture.

Because ethanol is soluble with water, ethanol must be transported from the point of manufacture to the point of use by rail or truck. Existing pipelines cannot be used as the ethanol will corrode the pipes and contaminate other products that the pipelines carry.

Ethanol contains only about two-thirds the energy of conventional gasoline which results in a substantial reduction in fuel economy when used. Ethanol can be blended at up to 10% in gasoline with no major harm to most vehicles, but to use more than 10% ethanol in gasoline requires "Flexible Fuel" vehicles that are equipped to handle the low energy content and corrosive nature of this blend.

In contrast, synthetic fuels can be produced from virtually any carbon-bearing material including non-agricultural crops, waste products from numerous processes, landfill waste, as well as fossil sources such as coal, natural gas, heavy crude oil and oil shale. The feedstock is gasified and the gas stream is cleaned to remove all contaminants including CO₂, sulfur and other products.

As synthetic fuels are pure hydrocarbons, they can be transported using all current infrastructure including common carrier pipelines. This vastly reduces the cost of moving our fuel from the point of manufacture to the point of use.

Is your fuel actually safe to drink?

Available data indicates that our fuel should not be lethal to humans, however, other effects would make drinking the fuel highly undesirable. Please enjoy our fuels for their superior performance and environmental benefits in your vehicle or jet airplane rather than as a beverage!