GALLERY

What is HyCat Oil?

HyCat Oil is a technology company licensing biomass-to-oil processes.

We produce oil with a high energy density that is close to petrol and diesel.

INNOVATION FOCUS

Innovation Focus 2015

Hycat Oil Produces oil that has:

- No acidity

- A high energy density

- Low oxygen content

- High hydrogen content

The Mission

The cost of fuel affects every part of our daily lives, even more so for the poorest of the poor. In South Africa, this need is relatively more important due to our lack of natural oil resources, leading to currency dependence on fuels like diesel, petrol and illuminating paraffin (linked to Singapore Bunker price).

UP has developed a fast pyrolysis unit (similar to gasification but lower temperatures) that can convert lignocellulosic biomass into oil in a single reactor.This unit heats the biomass very quickly with a catalyst, in the absence of oxygen to split the biomass into char, syngas and oil.

Current research results indicate that using the UP reactor design paired with a proprietary catalyst we can produce fuel with an energy value of 40MJ/kg. This is twice the energy value of existing pyrolysis oils and comparable with existing mineral heating oils. Additionally we hope to overcome a major problem with pyrolysis biofuels, namely acidity. The catalyst is able to remove all acidity from the fuel. These advantages opens up the first market into heating fuel oil, confirmed at 10 000 tons per month in South Africa, or R 600 million per year.

The process occurs in a single unit - dry fine biomass goes in, HyCat Oil is produced. Biomass is a totally renewable energy source, whether it is sawdust, invasive plants or agricultural residues. Almost all of the energy in a ton of biomass is condensed into approximately 300L of high quality fuel.

The ultimate goal is to commercialise the technology by building small (container) and large

pyrolysis units and to sell them to farmers and rural customers so that they can produce their own fuel.