Syntroleum starts up demonstration unit at Chinese JV
Syntroleum Corp., a renewable and synthetic fuels technology company based in Tulsa, Okla., U.S.A., posted an operating loss of US$1.9 million for the first six months of 2011. Revenues of US$2 million related to engineering services provided to Dynamic Fuels, 50-50 joint venture with Tyson Foods, and other customers for process design and research support, as well as royalties from the Dynamic Fuels commercial production which began in November. The company’s Dynamic Fuels commercial production reported a loss of US$5.5 million for the six-month period ending June 30, 2011. During the time period, the company’s plant was operating at approximately 20% of plant design. The venture reached record production of 5.4 million gallons of renewable fuels in July.
Syntroleum’s joint venture with Sinopec
The joint venture between Syntroleum and Sinopec opened its 80 barrel per day demonstration facility in Zhenhai, China. The pilot plant will convert coal, petroleum coke and residual fuel oil into synthetic petrochemical feedstocks. “We have focused 100% of our energy since last October on bringing our first of a kind advanced biofuels plant up to commercial production rates. Now that we have accomplished this, we intend to focus our efforts on optimizing the plant’s performance enabling us to produce more and more of the “drop-in” renewable fuels needed to meet the growing demand for biofuels,” said Gary Roth, CEO of Syntroleum. (August 8, 2011)
