Oxford clean fuel firm snaps up Velocys for £56m

Clean tech company Oxford Catalysts Group has bought US firm Velocys for ￡56m in a move that will enable their combined technologies to produce next generation clean synthetic fuels more economically at smaller scales.

Oxford Catalysts Group’s technology removes sulphur from petrol and diesel and converts natural gas or coal into ultra clean liquid fuels and also transforms waste methane into the chemical building blocks of liquid fuels.

The company claims that at a time of high energy and chemical feedstock prices, the combined technologies will result in substantial capital cost savings, improved product yields and greater energy efficiencies than conventional technologies.

Velocys is recognised as one of the world leaders in the design and development of microchannel process technology for the production of synthetic fuels, having had more than $160m invested in its technology to date, primarily by industrial partners including Dow Chemical, Toyo Engineering and MODEC.

Roy Lipski, chief executive of Oxford Catalysts (pictured) said in the press release:

“This is a transformational event for both companies and marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in the development of both Oxford Catalysts and Velocys. The enlarged group has the core technology and critical mass required to become a leader in the fast emerging small scale synthetic fuels market － a potentially significant new industry that could unlock sufficient supplies to produce hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of transportation fuels each year. “