Friday 16th March 2007
Opening of New Laboratory
Oxford Catalysts Group PLC ("Oxford Catalysts" or "the Company"), the leading catalyst innovator for clean fuels, is pleased to announce the official opening of a new state-of-the-art laboratory at Milton Park, Oxfordshire, by Professor Stephen G Davies, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, at a ceremony to be held at 3pm today.
Professor Davies heads the largest Chemistry Department in the Western World, and is himself a successful entrepreneur having founded two successful companies: Vastox and Oxford Asymmetry International.
Oxford Catalysts, the spin-out from the University of Oxford which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, has invested £1m in the top-specification facility in Milton Park that is fully equipped for the development, preparation, characterisation and testing of catalysts and small scale devices incorporating the Company’s catalyst technologies.
The Company has grown out of its initial home in the University of Oxford, to the facility launched today, which will house the Company’s current 17 staff, 11 of whom are research scientists and engineers, as well as up to 10 further employees to be taken on in the year ahead.
Milton Park is one of Europe’s largest multi-use business parks, currently housing approximately 7,000 people from over 160 companies. The park has experienced a significant expansion in technology-based businesses; it currently hosts more science and biotechnology companies than anywhere else in Oxfordshire, several of which have spun out from British universities.
Tony Longstaff, Managing Director of MEPC Milton Park Limited said:
"We are delighted that Oxford Catalysts has come to Milton Park, following a long line of growing technology companies. Their developing technology is set to make a global impact in areas that are becoming increasingly important in the world today, and we look forward to supporting them as they progress."
Roy Lipski, Chief Executive of Oxford Catalysts said:
"This is an exciting development for the Company and will provide us with the right infrastructure to support our future growth plans. The new facilities afford us a top-of-the-range working environment, whilst keeping us close to our spiritual home in Oxford."
For further information, please contact:
Roy Lipski, Chief Executive, Oxford Catalysts 01235 841 700
Jonathon Brill / Billy Clegg, Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113
Notes to Editors
Oxford Catalysts Group PLC, the leading catalyst innovator for clean fuels, 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 the University of Oxford's prestigious Wolfson Catalysis Centre, headed by Professor Malcolm Green, one of the world's most respected inorganic chemists. Oxford Catalysts was founded by Professor Green and Dr 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.
Oxford Catalysts’ 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 for a novel class of catalysts made from metal carbides which, for certain reactions, can match or exceed the benefits of traditional precious metal catalysts at a lower cost. Applications of these metal-carbide catalysts include the removal of sulphur from crude oil fractions (known as hydro-desulphurisation or HDS), the conversion of natural gas or coal into virtually sulphur-free liquid fuels via the Fischer-Tropsch reaction (known as the GTL and CTL processes respectively), and the transformation of biogas (waste methane) into syngas - the building block of liquid fuels.
The second platform relates to chemical reactions involving a liquid fuel containing an alcohol (such as methanol), hydrogen peroxide and water. The company’s novel catalyst can be used to release hydrogen gas from this liquid fuel, instantaneously starting from room temperature. This groundbreaking hydrogen-on-demand technology has the potential to significantly accelerate the commercial adoption of fuel cells in the portable and other mobile markets, by providing the much needed source of cheap, safe transportable hydrogen.
Another of the company’s catalysts can be used to produce superheated steam (800c+) from the above fuel, instantaneously starting from room temperature. Such portable high-temperature steam could have important applications in a broad range of markets, from cleaning and disinfecting, to motive power and electricity generation.
