Sundrop Fuels to Use ExxonMobil MTG Technology for Nation’s First “Green Gasoline” Production Facility

  Sundrop Fuels to Use ExxonMobil MTG Technology for Nation’s First “Green
  Gasoline” Production Facility

Business Wire

LONGMONT, Colo. -- June 27, 2012

Sundrop Fuels, Inc., a gasification-based drop-in advanced biofuels company,
today announced that it has finalized a licensing agreement to use ExxonMobil
Research and Engineering Company’s methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) technology to be
incorporated into the nation’s first “green gasoline” production facility.
Located near Alexandria, Louisiana, Sundrop Fuels plans to break ground late
this year on its inaugural commercial plant, which will produce up to 50
million gallons of renewable gasoline annually.

Sundrop Fuels will use a multi-phase process to convert sustainable forest
waste into clean, affordable bio-based “green gasoline” for use in today’s
combustion engines. A gasification process will convert the forest waste
combined with hydrogen from clean-burning natural gas into a synthesis gas,
which will then be converted into methanol. The MTG synthesis process works by
feeding the methanol into a fixed-bed reactor system, turning it into
hydrocarbons and water. The end product is zero-sulfur, ultra-low benzene
gasoline that can be used directly or blended with petroleum-based
gasoline—both compatible with the nation’s existing fuel distribution
infrastructure.

The Sundrop Fuels installation represents the first commercial production of
biofuels using the MTG process. The MTG technology was originally developed in
the 1970s and was successfully commercialized for a large-scale natural gas to
gasoline plant during the 1980s in New Zealand.

“ExxonMobil Research & Engineering’s MTG technology gives Sundrop Fuels a
proven fuels synthesis method to maximize the economic and environmental
benefits gained through our company’s production of clean, bio-based renewable
gasoline,” said Sundrop Fuels Chief Executive Officer Wayne Simmons. “This
combination of technologies represents an important milestone in America’s
path to energy independence and the integration of environmentally beneficial,
domestic gasoline into our nation’s transportation fuel supply.”

The company’s first facility will also provide an operational platform for
Sundrop Fuels to begin field integration of its proprietary RP Reactor™
radiant particle heat transfer gasification technology. The super-efficient,
ultra high-temperature process will drive Sundrop Fuels’ future massive-scale
biofuels plants, which will produce more than 300 million gallons of
renewable, drop-in biofuels annually.

Plans are for Sundrop Fuels to achieve a combined production capacity of more
than one billion gallons by 2020 – a significant percentage of the cellulosic
advanced biofuels goal set by the nation’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

Significant backing for Sundrop Fuels comes from Chesapeake Energy Corporation
(NYSE: CHK), the largest producer of natural gas in northern Louisiana’s
Haynesville Shale Field and second-largest producer in the nation. Chesapeake
invested $155 million in Sundrop Fuels in mid-2011.

The company’s investors also include two of the world’s premier venture
capital firms, Oak Investment Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers.

About Sundrop Fuels, Inc.

Sundrop Fuels, Inc. is a gasification-based drop-in advanced biofuels company
based in Longmont, Colorado. Backing for Sundrop Fuels comes from its
strategic partner, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, and by two of the world’s
premier venture firms, Oak Investment Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield &
Byers. Sundrop Fuels plans to build and operate large-scale biorefineries each
generating more than 300 million gallons of drop-in transportation biofuels
annually. For more information visit www.sundropfuels.com.

Corporate Affairs, Public Relations and News Media Contact: Steven Silvers at
stevensilvers@gbsm.com or 303-596-9960.

About ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company

EMRE is the research and engineering arm of Exxon Mobil Corporation, a leading
global oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals company whose subsidiaries have
operations in nearly 200 countries and territories. Additional information
regarding ExxonMobil and technologies it licenses can be found at
http://www.exxonmobil.com/refiningtechnologies.

Contact:

Sundrop Fuels, Inc.
Steven Silvers, 303-596-9960
Director of Corporate Communications
stevensilvers@gbsm.com