Thursday 28th November 2008
American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Award

Oxford Catalysts Group PLC, the leading technology innovator for clean fuels, is pleased to announce that Dr Jan Lerou, Chief Technology Officer of the Group, has won the prestigious Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (“CRE”) Division Practice Award for 2008 from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (“AIChE”). The award was presented at a special session during the AIChE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

Keith Hutchenson, CRE Division Vice-Chair said:

"The selection committee was impressed with the significance and breadth of Jan's contributions to the industrial practice of catalysis and reaction engineering.”

The CRE Division Practice Award, which has been given annually since 2000, recognises individuals who have made pioneering contributions to the design or implementation of industrial products, catalysts or processes through ingenious and creative application of chemical reaction engineering or catalysis concepts."

Roy Lipski, Chief Executive of Oxford Catalysts said:

"I am delighted for Jan that his many contributions to the industry are being recognised in this way. Oxford Catalysts Group has an exceptional team which this award is a testament to."

Oxford Catalysts Group PLC is a listed public company (LSE: OCG) comprising two operating subsidiaries − Oxford Catalysts Limited and Velocys, Inc. The Group combines technologies developed over decades at two of the most prestigious research organisations in the world, the University of Oxford and Battelle Memorial Institute.

Oxford Catalysts Limited designs and develops specialty catalysts for the generation of clean fuels from both conventional fossil fuels and certain renewable sources such as biomass. It has two key platform technologies; the first is for a novel class of catalysts incorporating metal carbides, which can have significantly better price/performance characteristics than traditional catalysts, for several key processes used in the petroleum and petrochemical industries. Applications of these catalysts include the removal of sulphur from crude oil fractions (known as hydro-desulphurisation or HDS), the conversion of natural gas, coal or bio-mass into virtually sulphur-free liquid fuels via the Fischer-Tropsch reaction (known as the GTL, CTL and BTL processes respectively), and the transformation of biogas (waste methane) into syngas − the building block of liquid fuels.

The second platform relates to a unique chemical reaction which can be used to generate steam at temperatures between 100ºC and 600ºC+, instantaneously, starting from room temperature, using a cheap liquid fuel alongside the company’s patented catalysts. Such unprecedented 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.

Velocys, Inc. is the recognised world leader in the design and development of microchannel process technology for the production of synthetic fuels and commodity chemicals. It owns, or has licenses to, the largest microchannel patent portfolio in the world (>550 patents), and has had over $160 million invested in its technology to date.

The basic building blocks of the Velocys technology are reactor components, each with large numbers of small parallel and/or perpendicular microchannels. These microchannel reactors enable the use of significantly more active catalysts than can be utilised by conventional reactors. They can result in substantial capital cost savings, improved product yields, and greater energy efficiencies than conventional technologies, particularly when incorporated into smaller scale projects such as those suited to BTL, and to GTL for flare gas and small to medium scale stranded gas − a potentially significant new addressable market.

Velocys is commercialising systems for both Fischer-Tropsch and steam methane reforming, two of the key components of the GTL process. It has formed strategic partnerships with several industry leaders in various application areas, including Toyo Engineering Corporation (a global EPC company) and MODEC, INC. (the world’s second largest owner/provider of FPSOs).

The Group’s strategy is to license its technologies for commercial application by entering into co-development partnerships with leading manufacturers, producers and suppliers in the petroleum, alternative fuels, chemicals, steam applications and catalysis markets.

The Group’s Board of Directors is Chaired by Pierre Jungels, CBE, who has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry, including past positions as CEO of Enterprise Oil, Executive Director of PetroFina and Managing Director of British Gas; he currently sits on the Boards of Baker Hughes, Woodside Petroleum and Imperial Tobacco. Other than the Executives, the Board also includes Jan Verloop and Jeremy Scudamore. Jan spent over 30 years at Shell in various technical and managerial positions, the latter being Head of Strategic Innovation. Jeremy was CEO of Zeneca Specialties, which he took private to form Avecia Group and then went on to head as CEO and subsequently as Chairman.

The Group has over 90 employees and operates from facilities near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK and Columbus, Ohio, USA.

www.oxfordcatalysts.com / www.velocys.com

About the American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Founded in the United States in 1908, AIChE is a professional association of more than 40,000 chemical engineers in 93 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society.

http://www.aiche.org