Innovative microchannel technology developed by the Oxford Catalysts Group was named as the winner of the Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award in a ceremony held at the Cheminnovations conference and exhibition in Houston, Texas, US on 12 September, 2011.

The Group's modular synthetic fuel technology - which enables the small scale and economic production of synthetic fuels via gas-to-liquids (GTL), biomass-to-liquids (BTL) and coal-to-liquids (CTL) via the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction - includes microchannel FT combined with a new highly active FT catalyst and steam methane reforming (SMR) reactors.

It is designed for use in the smallscale distributed production of biofuels, and as practical way to transform associated and stranded gas via GTL into high quality synthetic crude. This opens up the possibility of carrying out GTL offshore. It could also make it possible to use the GTL process to convert North America's abundant shale gas resources into diesel and jet fuels.

The aim of the Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award is to recognise and honour the most noteworthy chemical-engineering technology commercialised anywhere in the world during the two years prior to a given award year. Chemical Engineering magazine has awarded this biennial prize continuously since 1933.

Jeff McDaniel, Commercial Director at the Oxford Catalysts Group says: "We are very honoured to receive the Kirkpatrick award because it recognises the environmental and commercial significance of our activities in GTL and BTL. It also endorses our efforts to develop and promote the wider environmental and sustainability potential of microchannel process technology, which can change the way fuels and chemicals are made."