Oxford Catalysts Selected for Design of 1,100 bpd BTL Plant

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.

Roy Lipski, CEO of Oxford Catalysts Group, said:
“We are pleased to have our technology selected once again, this time for a promising opportunity in the growing area of Biomass-to-Liquids. We’re also excited by the potential for this project to access $70 million of government funding to support early adoption of a synthetic fuels plant.”

Terry Kulesa, CEO of IR1 Group, said:
“The choice of Velocys FT was easy. No other FT technology offered the combination of high performance and efficiency at a scale appropriate for a BTL facility. We’re pleased to be working with the Group on this pioneering project.”