OREANDA-NEWS. November 27, 2015. Velocys plc (VLS.L), the company at the forefront of smaller scale gas-to-liquids (GTL), is pleased to announce the successful completion of pilot plant tests that demonstrate significant process intensification, increasing capacity and productivity and improving commercial plant economics.

The tests:

·   Demonstrate that continuous improvements over the last 18 months have resulted in a greater than 50% increase in capacity, without changing the commercial catalyst formulation or the reactor design.

·   Prove that superior yields of high value liquid hydrocarbon products can be maintained while simultaneously achieving these high productivities. Carbon monoxide conversions of 70% per pass, or 91-92% overall, are achieved concurrently with a C5+ selectivity (the percentage of the products that are liquid rather than low-value gaseous hydrocarbons) of about 90% and a methane selectivity as low as about 5%.

·   Show industry-leading yields of the highest value, longer chain hydrocarbons (such as those used in the production of speciality chemicals) at high productivities. This increases the potential revenue from a plant with a given input, enabling plant operators to access higher value markets and reducing the impact of oil price volatility.

·   Employed a new start-up protocol enabling the pilot plant to reach target operating conditions in eight hours; a very significant improvement. As a result, this will improve further the economics of commercial plants and increase their availability.

Advances made at the pilot plant have already been incorporated into the design of the 4,800 barrel per day Ashtabula GTL plant that the Company is developing in Ohio.

Dr Paul Schubert, Chief Operating Officer of Velocys explained the significance of the latest Velocys pilot plant results in a BRR Media webcast, which can be viewed here.

Dr Paul Schubert, Chief Operating Officer of Velocys, said:

"These results are a reflection of the tremendous progress that our in-house technical teams have made and are continuing to make, quietly in the background, in what has been a delivery-focused year for the business.

"Velocys technology has now been tested for over 24,000 hours at the pilot and demonstration scale and for over 1.3 million hours in the laboratory. We enter our commercial phase with a technology that has been developed with rigour and thoroughness and in which we, our clients and partners can have every confidence."