Chementator: …and there’s a new CTL licensee and patent for Rentech

Last month, Rentech, Inc. (Denver, Co.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-539) signed its first domestic license agreement with DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC (Houston, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-540) for the use of Rentech’s patented F-T CTL technology (CE, May 2004, p. 23). At the same time, DKRW’s subsidiary, Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC (Medicine Bow, Wyo.), signed an individual site license for its proposed CTL project planned for Medicine Bow. The first phase of that project is designed to co-produce 10,000 bbl/d of ultraclean fuels and 200 MW of electric power from Carbon Basin coal. Later plans are to boost production to 40,000 bbl/d. DKRW was formed in 2002 by three former Enron employees and a former Secretary of Army in the current Bush Administration. Rentech was also awarded its twentieth U.S. patent for its F-T CTL and gas-to-liquids technology. The patent (U.S. 6 976 362) is related to integrating F-T and power production with reduced CO2 emissions. In the process, unreacted H2 from the F-T tailgas and a bypassed stream of syngas are combined and fed to a shift reactor, converting the CO into CO2. The CO2 is then captured and the H2-rich stream used as fuel in a combined-cycle turbine.   Click here…