Almost £10 million of new funding has ensured jet fuel refinery developer Velocys can continue its thrust towards commercialisation as it brings forward plants in the UK and US.
The Oxford University spin out is the lead partner in a joint venture involving British Airways and Shell on the South Humber Bank, where it looking to add to the petro-chemical cluster with a waste to fuel facility.
A loss of £5.2 million was revealed in the half year results, with the period closing as a share issue brought in strong backing to complement the money poured in by the household names behind it.
The full planning application for the Altalto refinery at Stallingborough has recently been submitted to North East Lincolnshire Council.
Henrik Wareborn, chief executive, said: “2019 has been a positive year for the company. The demand for our Fischer Tropsch technology is growing on both sides of the Atlantic, which is why we have concentrated our efforts on project development and reactor manufacturing.
"These last six months have seen Velocys accelerate the move from concept to commercialisation - transitioning from research, development and testing, to focusing on commercial scale client delivery and operational excellence.
“We have delivered our first reactor and all catalyst charges to our client in Oregon – Red Rock Biofuels – and the manufacturing of the remaining reactors is advancing.
“We are now focusing all our efforts on commercial delivery – for our client in Oregon and for our two projects, Bayou Fuels in Mississippi, USA and Altalto.
“None of this would have been possible without the recent support of our shareholders new and old along with the hard work and dedication that all our staff have put in to achieve the company’s goals.”
The UK project has now completed all pre-front end engineering and design (FEED) work. Mr Wareborn said the additional funding from the partners received post period end – £2.8 million from British Airways and Shell – has ensured that it can reach the FEED stage in the next few months.
He added that advancing the project into that and towards financial close in 2021 is a key objective.
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