Biogas Conversion

The Process

Oxford Catalysts' co-founder Professor Malcolm Green pioneered the Catalytic Partial Oxidation of methane ("CPOx") into syngas for making liquid fuels. His co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Tiancun Xiao won a Carbon Trust Innovation Award with the University of Oxford in 2005 for his work on the application of CPOx to biogas conversion.

The Market

Driven primarily by environmental regulation, market focus on renewable fuels has increased over the past few years, although the industry is still in its infancy. Biofuels, in particular, could account for as much as 5% of all gasoline consumption by 2010.

Methane, as found in biogas, is 21 times more potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. But capturing it and installing pipelines to transport it is cost-prohibitive for all but the largest production sites. Therefore, converting biogas into liquid green fuels that can be readily transported holds huge economic and environmental potential.

Waste-to-Energy

The Benefits

Our carbide-based CPOx catalyst, used on its own or in combination with other catalysts for conversion of biogas into syngas, achieves:

• maximal activity (i.e. maximum possible yield)
• lower cost
• longer catalyst life
• greater robustness to the contaminants often found in biogas (e.g. sulphur)