Wednesday 12th May 2010
Next generation biofuels: microchannel reactor technology is an XTL award winner

A Fischer Tropsch (FT) microchannel reactor developed by Velocys, Inc. combined with a new highly active FT catalyst developed by Oxford Catalysts has been named as the winner of the CWC World XTL award 2010. The award was presented to Susan Robertson, Chief Financial Officer of the Oxford Catalysts Group by Guy de Kort, VP XTL, Shell Projects and Technology at a dinner hosted by GTL.F1 held on 11 May as part of the CWC 10th Annual World XTL Summit in London.

The reactor, which can achieve productivities that are orders of magnitude greater than for conventional FT reactors, can operate economically at outputs as low as 500 barrels per day while achieving productivities that are orders of magnitude greater than for conventional FT reactors.

The technology makes it possible to produce liquid biofuels from a wide variety of waste feedstocks, including municipal waste in situ, thus avoiding the need to transport large volumes of waste to central processing facilities. A demonstration biofuels plant, which includes the FT microchannel reactor and uses gasified woodchips as a feedstock, is currently being commissioned in Güssing, Austria.

Other microchannel technology applications being developed and demonstrated by Oxford Catalysts include small scale onshore and offshore gas-to- liquids (GTL) and the intensification of steam methane reforming.

Roy Lipski, CEO the Oxford Catalysts Group said:

“Our innovation represents a whole new way of looking at the problems associated with the distributed production of new generation biofuels, and the fuels produced offer significant environmental benefits over equivalent products from fossil fuels. We are honoured to have won this important award.”

Dr. Alirio Parra, Senior Associate, CWC Group Ltd said:

“This achievement demonstrates that Oxford Catalysts is regarded by its industry peers as an innovative and exciting player in the XTL world and we look forward to hearing of the Group's developments at next year's World XTL Summit.”

Microchannel reactors

Microchannel reactors are compact reactors that have channels with diameters in the millimetre range. The small diameter channels dissipate heat more quickly than conventional reactors with larger channel diameters in the 2.5 – 10 cm (1 – 4 inch) range so more active catalysts can be used. Microchannel reactors make it possible to greatly intensify chemical reactions to enable them to occur at rates 10 to 1000 times faster than in conventional systems.

Promising applications for microchannel reactor technology include GTL and the production of next-generation biofuels from a wide variety of waste sources via biomass to liquids (BTL) processes.

The Oxford Catalysts Group is currently working with the Portuguese company SGC Energia (SGCE), to demonstrate and commercialise the Oxford Catalysts Group's FT microchannel reactor for the distributed production of biofuels. (See: Biofuels press release ) It is also working with other partners to demonstrate the application of microchannel GTL for use on offshore platforms and floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs; see GTL press release)

The Oxford Catalysts Group

Oxford Catalysts Group PLC is a listed public company (LSE: OCG) comprised of two operating subsidiaries – Oxford Catalysts Ltd and Velocys, Inc. The Group has over 90 employees and operates from facilities near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK and Columbus, Ohio, US. The company was founded 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.

www.oxfordcatalysts.com

Velocys, Inc.

Velocys, Inc. is based in Columbus, Ohio, US and specialises in the design and development of microchannel process technology for the production of synthetic fuels. The company was spun out of Battelle Memorial Institute, Inc., a major not-for-profit science and technology organisation, in 2001. It owns, or has licenses to, the largest microchannel patent portfolio in the world, with over 550 patent filings, and supports a large microchannel development team. Velocys, Inc. was acquired by Oxford Catalysts in 2008.

www.velocys.com

Oxford Catalysts Ltd

Oxford Catalysts Ltd designs, develops and licences speciality catalysts for the generation of clean fuels from both conventional fossil fuels and certain renewable sources such as biomass. The company focuses on 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 platform is based on a novel a catalyst and fuel combination that produces instant chemical steam at temperatures between 100ºC and 800ºC+ starting from room temperature. 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/technology

The 2010 World XTL Award

The CWC XTL Award was established in 2006 to celebrate excellence and encourage innovation in the synthetic fuels sectors. This year's award, open to companies of any size involved in the XTL value chain, was designed to honour the company that has contributed most to XTL innovation during the past year. The winner was chose by a panel of leading industry experts from a short list of nominees that also included BioMCN, ENI/IFP/Axens, Oryx GTL, Rentech, Shell and Technip.

Previous winners include Oryx GTL, GTL.F1, and Shell Gas & Power.

www.thecwcgroup.com