The 40 Hottest Technologies of 2018 – as voting gets underway, the nominees in depth

Velocys BTL

What does it do, how does it work, who is it aimed at?

Velocys is a renewable fuels company whose mission is to become the most trusted, reliable and proven provider of clean, sustainable fuels.  Their core technology is based on the Fischer-Tropsch process; a well understood chemical conversion processes that has been deployed commercially at a number of locations worldwide. We’ve innovated the F-T process such that it is feedstock flexible and economic at a range of scales, enabling the development of projects in a greater number and variety of locations, using a variety of feedstocks.  Their technology has been proven at commercial scale and is now being deployed across multiple projects that are under development, including a waste biomass to renewable diesel facility in Mississippi and a municipal solid waste to jet fuel facility in the U.K. in partnership with Shell and British Airways.

Competitively, what gives this technology an edge?

The F-T process has traditionally only been feasible at extremely large scale using unsustainable feedstocks. Velocys F-T technology can be deployed at a smaller scale & with different feedstocks, enabling  truly distributed clean fuel production previously impossible with this technology. Because they use waste materials for feedstock, and  Their plants are highly energy efficient they are able to generate fuels that qualify for the highest value RINs under the RFS. They produce long hydrocarbon molecules –  such as kerosene and diesel with high energy density, >C6. In addition, they are  drop-in” which eases use with existing infrastructure and eliminates  blendwall  issues & other challenges.  Their fuels reduce lifecycle CO2 by 60%, & also sharply lower particulates, Sulphur and Nitrogen compounds – down to a few parts per billion. The feedstocks they use do not compete with food crops for land use.

What stage of development is this technology at right now?

During 20 months of operations at  Their demonstration plant, they demonstrated successful operation commissioning and start-up through full commercial operation. Enabled extensive data capture. Sold over 10,000 barrels of products to commercial offtakers. Generated RIN credits under the (RFS), another key commercial validation of the Velocys technology.

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