Oxford Catalysts Group Announces Successful Start-Up of Fischer-Tropsch Reactor

Oxford Catalysts Group, a technology innovator for synthetic fuels production,announced the successful commencement of the first commercial-scale microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor at one of its clients’ facility.

The reactor has a minimal capacity of more than 25 barrels per day (bpd) and is anticipated to operate continuously for nearly six months at the facility. The reactor is used by an integrated energy company to deliver comprehensive engineering information for designing commercial medium-scale synthetic fuels manufacturing facilities that the client has planned to construct on various sites across the world.

The microchannel FT reactor along with the loaded catalyst was delivered to the customer’s site in the first quarter of 2012. Catalyst activation or reduction was carried out by the energy company under appropriate conditions. Steve LeViness, Fischer-Tropsch Product Manager at Oxford Catalysts, stated that they have finished the commissioning process and this is a milestone for them and their client. The successful demonstration of Velocys' microchannelFT technology is the result of major reactor and catalyst scale-up initiatives that have been continuing for several years. The catalyst performance at the client’s facility matches with their lab results and they are happy with the reactor’s performance until now, reported LeViness.