Rentech Inks Biofuel Deal with Eight LAX-Based Airlines for Their Ground Utility Vehicles

By Michael Kanellos

Rentech (RTK), which makes biofuel from a modified version of the Fischer-Tropsch process, has signed a deal with eight airlines to provide their ground utility trucks at Los Angeles International Airport with 1.5 million gallons of fuel annually. That's enough to handle all of the the needs of ground service trucks, according to Rentech.

The deal will go through in 2012, when Rentech's plant will be complete.

The deal marks another step in the slow, but steady, slog toward biofuels, and it makes sense. Unlike cars, utility trucks at an airport never stray far from home. Thus, a centralized biodiesel pump can serve them. It also allows the city to tout its green credentials and help U.S. businesses with local operations.

Will the trucks emit tailpipe fumes? Yes, but since the carbon originally came from terrestrial sources instead of underground, it's relatively carbon neutral. In a carbon trading world, that's another plus.

Rentech's fuel is made with biomass. Fischer-Tropsch was originally conceived in 1920 to convert coal to liquid fuel. The coal process has always been expensive and dirty, which explains why only the Third Reich and embargo-addled Apartheid South Africa were the only two nations to heavily rely on it. In F-T, the feedstock is heated to high temperatures, converted to a synthetic gas and ultimately turned into a liquid. A couple of other new age ethanol companies like Range Fuels are exploiting thermochemical processes, but biological remediation (i.e., having super microbes chew up plant matter into fuels) appears to be more popular with startup investors and entrepreneurs.

Comments

[einstein p ...:]

When you buy a spec stock for 47 cents and it goes up 2 dollars in less than a week all I can say is one thing ---- YAHOO!

Been accumulating this stock for almost a year and it finally paid off in spades and it's not done yet.

Aug 18 03:26 PM

[captainccs:]

This has been an extraordinary month for Rentech. First its RenJet fuel is approved (certified) for commercial aviation, then it declares its first ever profit of 22 cents for the quarter and today it announces the deal to sell RenDiesel to the airlines. The 22 cents net quarterly income is enough to push this stock above $3 and that profit does not even come from fuel but from fertilizer. Right: "Yahoo!"

Aug 18 04:52 PM

[petervankan:]

I'm also a longitme rentech fan. Bought 2 years back at around 2 bucks and added during the 50 cents period. I like to stocjk not jhust for the technique but also for the versatility of the company and the common sense and steadiness of management. When airlines start using fuel for actual planes, the sky is the limit.

Aug 19 09:32 AM

[famos:]

Dear Michael,
When you say, : " Unlike cars, utility trucks at an airport never stray far from home. Thus, a centralized biodiesel pump can serve them."

Rentech is making diesel, just diesel, the only difference is, it burns cleaner, that's why they call it "clean" diesel. The so called utility trucks can venture as far away from the airport as they like because they are diesel powered engines that currently burn "dirty" diesel. And in 2012 they will be burning Rentech's "clean" diesel - which will be stored in the same diesel tanks they have stored the "dirty" diesel.

Regarding South Africa; an interesting lesson that we should learn from, i.e. South Africa became independent of petroleum importation. Exactly, what the U.S. talks about, but does not do. The logical next step evolution is coal-to-diesel power generating plants which obviously is far environmentally cleaner than traditional coal-burning power plants and will still be the most economically feasible. The U.S. does have the largest known coal deposits in the world. Why should we use it? We can just keep buying from the Terrorists or run our cars, ships, trains & planes on wind and/or solar power.

Famos

Aug 19 11:25 PM

[Gu Be:]

SYNM has also tested their Synthetic Fuel with the USA Airforce with approval of this fuel common to all Military Vehicles. Origin of this fuel now Tyson Food/ SYNM joint venture plant for processin chicken fat to synthetic fuel .Also to take info account their biomass origin fuel. Therefore RTK andd SYNM clean fuels for wider use.
Another non contaminant synthetic fuel the one of SSL obtained from natural gas .
When these 3 processors will work at full capacity (no contaminant process) we'll depend much less from expensive and contaminant oil.

Aug 21 10:12 AM