U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) November 22, 1999
RENTECH, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Colorado 0-19260 84-0957421
(State of incorporation) (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer
Identification No.)
1331 17th Street, Suite 720, Denver, Colorado 80202 80202
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(303) 298-8008
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
N/A
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)
Item 5. Other Events.
Rentech, Inc. has completed the build out and upgrading of its new
research and development facility, which is now operational. The 7,000
square foot facility is located in Denver, Colorado. It houses a state
of the art, thirty foot tall bubble column Fischer-Tropsch test reactor
and all related engineering, catalyst and gas testing and monitoring
equipment.
Rentech's Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) technical team, led by Drs. Charles
B. Benham and Mark Bohn, founders of Rentech, has already begun a series
of syngas (a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) and catalyst
tests for several prospective GTL projects the company is currently
pursuing. Initial results from the test facility have been excellent,
confirming earlier results achieved in the operation of Rentech's five
pilot plants and the commercial-scale Synhytech GTL plant, which was
located near Pueblo, Colorado.
A recent Department of Energy (DOE) report, contract number
DE-FC22-95PC-93052, published in June 1999, provides data the DOE
obtained from operation of the DOE's test facility located at LaPorte,
Texas. The report contains the first detailed public information on the
GTL conversion results of cobalt catalysts deployed in a slurry-type
Fischer-Tropsch reactor. The DOE report provides data that allows
in-depth comparisons to be made between cobalt and iron catalysts
deployed in a slurry reactor.
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Rentech's review of the DOE report reinforces the company's belief
that its iron-based catalyst is fully competitive with cobalt catalyst
and delivers comparable yields in a fully integrated GTL system operating
with natural gas. Moreover, the company believes that Rentech's
iron-based catalyst system offers far greater flexibility than a cobalt
catalyst-based system in that it can effectively process a gaseous
feedstock (syngas) produced from a wide variety of carbon-bearing
materials such as coal, bitumen, refinery bottoms like coke and
asphaltenes, as well as industrial off-gases.
Certain portions of this report may contain "forward looking"
statements as defined by the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Any number of important factors could
cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward
looking statements herein. These factors include the actual results that
may be achieved from commercial plants constructed and operated in the
future. For more information concerning factors that could cause such a
difference, see the company's annual report on Form 10-KSB and quarterly
reports on Form 10-QSB, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Although Rentech believes its statements to be reasonable,
investors are cautioned that such forward looking statements involve risk
and uncertainties. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly
release the result of any revisions to any such forward looking
statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the
date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by
the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
RENTECH, INC.
By: (signature)
------------------------------------
Ronald C. Butz, Vice President,
Date: November 23, 1999
