ExxonMobil's Methanol to Gasoline (MTG) Technology Selected for Synthesis Energy Systems

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IRVING, Texas, Sept. 29, 2008 - ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Synthesis Energy Systems (SES) that provides SES the option to execute up to fifteen Methanol to Gasoline technology licenses in their global operations. SES has chosen to assign the first license to a project near Benwood, West Virginia.

This approximate 7,000 barrel per calendar day unit will be based on commercially proven MTG technology which incorporates improvements since the technology was originally commercialized by ExxonMobil 20 years ago in New Zealand.

MTG converts crude methanol directly to low sulfur, low benzene gasoline that can be sold directly or blended with conventional refinery gasoline. Although the original application of the MTG technology processed methanol from natural gas, the same technology can be used for methanol from other sources such as coal, petcoke or biomass. The SES projects will gasify the coal, convert the synthetic gas to methanol, and then convert the methanol to gasoline via the MTG process. Conversion of coal to gasoline through gasification and methanol conversion is one way to significantly reduce the potential pollutants from coal, including the reduction of SO_x emissions and the capture of CO₂.