Tuesday 29th January 2008
Major Laboratory Extension Accelerates Commercialisation

Oxford Catalysts, a leading catalyst innovator for clean fuels, is expanding its laboratory facilities and investing in additional analytical equipment in order to accelerate its catalyst development and better serve its growing customer base.

The expansion, due to begin at the end of January 2008, will involve a total investment of over £1 million, and will more than double the floor space of the existing laboratory facilities. As part of the project, Oxford Catalysts has already purchased two Amtec Spider16 high throughput screening gas phase reactor systems. These are due to be brought into operation in March and April 2008. To supplement the rigs it already owns, it also plans to purchase three additional rigs, including a small scale Fischer-Tropsch (FT) rig, a reforming test rig, and a hydro-desulphurisation test rig, along with associated analytical and catalyst preparation equipment.

In addition, Oxford Catalysts will be taking on the necessary technicians and catalyst preparation chemists needed to support the new equipment, as well as employing additional senior technology managers. In all, scientific staff numbers are expected to rise from the current 15 to around 23.

The expansion is expected to be completed by July 2008. In the meantime, Oxford Catalysts will be posting regular progress updates on its website.

Derek Atkinson, Business Development Director, Oxford Catalysts says:

"Developing new catalysts can be a time consuming process, and each catalyst has to be custom-made for a particular application to suit a customer's requirements. Having this expanded lab facility will allow us to carry out the necessary testing to provide our customers with the essential information they need about a catalyst more quickly. It will also help Oxford Catalysts to develop further new and innovative catalysts at a rate that will allow us to meet demand for new applications within the clean fuels area as they continue to arise."

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Notes to Editors

Oxford Catalysts Group PLC designs and develops specialty catalysts for the generation of clean fuels from both conventional fossil fuels and certain renewable sources such as biomass. Its patent-pending technology is the result of almost 20 years of research at Wolfson Catalysis Centre at the University of Oxford, headed by Professor Malcolm Green. Oxford Catalysts was founded by Professor Green and Dr Tiancun Xiao in October 2004 and was admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 26th April 2006, having raised £15m before expenses from a solid base of institutional investors. The Company's strategy is to license its catalysts for commercial application by entering into co-development partnerships with leading manufacturers, producers and suppliers in the petroleum, petrochemicals, fuel cells, biogas, steam applications and catalysis markets.

Oxford Catalysts has two key platform technologies. The first is based on a novel class of catalysts made from metal carbides. Aside from their lower cost, these catalysts offer a number of advantages. For example, in some reactions metal loadings can be reduced. In others, the need for precious metal promoters can be eliminated, while still retaining or even exceeding the benefits of traditional catalysts. Applications of these metal-carbide catalysts include hydro-processing and the conversion of natural gas, biogas or coal into sulphur-free diesel.

The second involves catalysts that can be used to produce steam at temperatures between 100ºC and 800ºC+ instantaneously starting from room temperature, from a liquid fuel containing dilute hydrogen peroxide and either an alcohol, sugar, glycerol, starch or formic acid. Such Instant Steam could have important applications in a broad range of markets, from cleaning and disinfecting, to green energy in the form of motive power or electricity.

www.oxfordcatalysts.com

The Catalyst Development Process

Catalysts must be tailor-made to suit each particular application. Catalyst development is an iterative process that involves three main stages. The first stage, which typically takes between 8 –14 months, involves reviewing the literature and assessing customer requirements to come up with a relatively large number of candidate compounds. In the second phase, which can take between 12–24 months, tests are carried out using micro-reactors to select and optimise the most promising candidates. In the third phase, further micro-reactor and pilot tests are carried out on the chosen candidate to assess its stability and performance in the intended application. If the catalyst performance is satisfactory, then work begins to establish the best way to manufacture the catalyst and demonstrate its performance on the industrial scale. This phase can take between 2–3 years to complete.