Gas2 gets funding for pilot plant to demonstrate gas-to-liquid technology

Backers of a Scottish company researching ways to turn natural gas into liquid fuel have injected a further £5.5 million into the venture to build a pilot plant to demonstrate its technology.

Aberdeen-based Gas2 is working to develop the next generation of gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology, with an exclusive licence to build on research from the city’s Robert Gordon University.

The firm, which started work to commercialise the technology in 2008, will receive the funds from existing backers including the university and Lime Rock Partners, a private equity firm that initially pumped £10m into the business.

Gas2’s technology allows the conversion of natural gas to liquid more economically and cleanly than has previously been possible. Half of the world’s natural gas is contained in fields that make it either physically or economically unusable, but turning it into liquids could make much of it viable if it can be done cheaply enough.

The investment will leverage further funding to enable the construction of a pilot reactor plant to further test and demonstrate the technology. The facility will be built at the Wilton Centre in Redcar, north-east England, which specialises in petrochemical and related research.

The investment will also fund further lab work and computer modelling in Aberdeen.

Mike Fleming, co-founder and managing director of Gas2, said: “We are entering a new and exciting phase with the building of the pilot plant which will validate on a larger scale the commercial viability of the Gas2 process. We have a unique technology and process.”