Green Car Congress: Oxford Catalysts Continues Lab Expansion to Accelerate Commercialization

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Oxford Catalysts Continues Lab Expansion to Accelerate Commercialization

30 January 2008

In an addition to the purchase of two Amtec Spider16 high throughput screening gas phase reactor systems (earlier post), startup Oxford Catalysts plans to purchase three additional rigs, including a small scale Fischer-Tropsch (FT) rig, a reforming test rig, and a hydrodesulfurization (HDS) test rig, along with associated analytical and catalyst preparation equipment.

The company, a spin-off from Oxford University and a 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.

Scientific staff numbers are expected to rise from the current 15 to around 23. The expansion is expected to be completed by July 2008.

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.

—Derek Atkinson, Business Development Director, Oxford Catalysts

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 hydroprocessing and the conversion of natural gas, biogas or coal into sulfur-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.

January 30, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)