Ontario elects to supply timber for renewable fuels

Rentech, Inc. announced that its proposed Olympiad Renewable Energy Centre has been selected by the Province of Ontario for a proposed supply of up to 1.3 million tons per year of Crown timber. The wood supply, composed primarily of forest waste and un-marketable species, would be used for the sustainable production of renewable RenJet®, Rentech’s clean certified low-carbon jet fuel.

The proposed wood allocation to Rentech’s project is the largest ever awarded in the Provincial Wood Supply Competitive Process administered by the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. The award would provide Rentech with a reliable long-term supply of biomass for its Olympiad Project. The Ministry selected Rentech’s proposal as the best proposed use of the available timber. The selection is the first step in the process of making the wood supply available to the project.

Rentech’s Olympiad Project is being designed to produce approximately 23 million gallons annually of renewable and certified low-carbon RenJet fuel. The project will also produce 13 million gallons annually of renewable naphtha, a chemical feedstock.

The Olympiad Project, scheduled to be in service in 2015, will be designed as a state-of-the-art renewable energy facility that will employ the company’s Rentech-ClearFuels biomass gasification system and the Rentech Process to produce the only type of alternative jet fuel certified for use in commercial aviation today. These technologies will enable Rentech to turn primarily un-marketable and underutilized timber into clean, renewable jet fuel.

Rentech is working closely with Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), whose C$500 million NextGen Biofuels Fund (NGBF) offers a significant potential funding source for the Olympiad Project. After a year of discussions with SDTC, Rentech has recently submitted an application for funding to the NGBF, which funds up to 40 percent to a maximum of C$200 million of eligible project development and construction costs, which would be repaid from a percentage of the project’s cash flows.