Oxford Catalysts Group lands major BTL contract in the US

In the UK, Oxford Catalysts Group has been selected as the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology provider for the design and possible construction of a commercial Biomass-to-Liquids (BTL) plant in the USA.

The BTL project was recently awarded a $4.1 million grant from the US Department of Defense (under the Defense Production Act Title III Advanced Drop-in Biofuel Production Project), which will help fund detailed engineering for a 1,100 barrels per day (bpd) BTL facility, following which the project will have an opportunity to apply for a further grant of up to $70 million to construct the proposed plant.

The proposed BTL facility, led by Red Rock Biofuels, a subsidiary of IR1 Group LLC (“IR1”), an experienced biofuels project developer, will be located in Oregon and will be designed to convert some 170,000 tons per year of forestry derived biomass into approximately 1,100 bpd of liquid transportation fuels. Preliminary engineering is complete, and with the aid of this grant is expected to be progressing through detailed engineering and design over the course of some nine months. Following successful completion of the detailed design phase, IR1 expects to apply for the additional grant funding to support construction.