Rentech Advances Bio-Energy Strategy Through Acquisition of SilvaGas and Investment in ClearFuels

Business Wire, June 24, 2009

The small incremental operating costs associated with the merger consist mainly of salaries and expenses for a small number of personnel and consultants with expertise in the SilvaGas technology. Management and further development of the SilvaGas technology will be integrated with Rentech’s existing technology management organization. With the merger, Rentech will not pay licensing fees that would have been payable to SilvaGas under the licensing agreement for the Rialto Project. Rentech expects to generate licensing revenues from projects that would use the gasifier at facilities integrated with the Rentech Process, or separately from applications such as stand-alone renewable electric power facilities or natural gas substitution.

Rentech’s Acquisition of a 25% Ownership Interest in ClearFuels Technology Inc., a Bio-Energy Gasification and Development Company

Rentech has acquired a 25% ownership interest in ClearFuels Technology Inc. (ClearFuels), a bio-energy gasification and project development company, following a review of dozens of gasification technologies.

ClearFuels, established in 1998, has exclusive rights to a proprietary flexible biomass gasification technology platform that converts multiple rural cellulosic biomass feedstocks such as sugarcane bagasse and virgin wood waste into clean synthesis gas (syngas) suitable for integration with synthesis gas-to-liquids technologies. ClearFuels’ biomass gasification process will be combined with the Rentech Fischer-Tropsch Process for the production of renewable synthetic jet and diesel fuels at commercial-scale facilities.

ClearFuels has signed an exclusive worldwide license with Rentech for the use of Rentech’s patented and proprietary Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuels technology for the production of renewable drop-in fuels from sugarcane bagasse. ClearFuels has also signed a license with Rentech for the use of the Rentech Fischer-Tropsch Process for the production of renewable synthetic fuels from virgin wood waste at up to twelve U.S.-based projects to be developed by ClearFuels.

ClearFuels has begun development of multiple commercial scale biomass-to-energy projects in the southeastern United States, Hawaii and internationally. These projects will use an integrated ClearFuels-Rentech design pursuant to the licensing agreements and will be co-located at sugar mills and wood processing facilities. The U.S. wood waste projects alone are estimated to have an aggregate annual capacity of more than 100 million gallons of renewable synthetic fuels and 30 MW of renewable power.

ClearFuels plans to build a 20 ton-per-day biomass gasifier designed to produce syngas from bagasse, virgin wood waste and other cellulosic feedstocks at Rentech’s Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) in Colorado, which the Company believes is the only operating synthetic transportation fuels facility in the U.S. The gasifier will be integrated with Rentech’s Fischer-Tropsch Process and UOP’s upgrading technology to produce renewable drop-in synthetic jet and diesel fuels at demonstration scale. The agreement provides that Rentech will continue to operate the PDU as already planned, but using the syngas from the ClearFuels gasifier, while ClearFuels will pay all incremental costs of building and operating the biomass gasifier. This joint demonstration is anticipated to lead to the final design basis for the commercial facilities that will use the combined technologies.