FT CANS™ technology by Johnson Matthey, BP enabled Fulcrum’s recent production milestone

Photo: Fulcrum BioEnergy

Johnson Matthey and BP announced Jan. 11 that their technology enabled Fulcrum’s Sierra BioFuels Plant to successfully produce synthetic crude oil for clean transportation fuels*.

Using Johnson Matthey’s and BP’s FT CANS™ technology, the Sierra plant is the world’s first commercial-scale plant to use household rubbish as a feedstock that would otherwise be destined for landfill.

Located outside of Reno, Nevada, it uses the FT CANS technology to convert waste into synthesis gas, which can then be converted to fuels.

The plant will produce synthetic crude oil, which is expected to ultimately be refined to approximately 11 million gallons of renewable, low-carbon transportation fuels each year from approximately 175,000 tons of landfill waste.

Johnson Matthey and BP signed their first license with waste-to-fuels developer Fulcrum to use their award-winning FT CANS technology in 2018.

“We’ve worked in partnership with BP, creating deep technology insights for more than a decade,” said Alberto Giovanzana, chief commercial officer of catalyst technologies at Johnson Matthey. “This close collaboration has led to the significant milestone we’re seeing today. The ability to convert household waste into low-cost, low-carbon transportation fuel is truly innovative and is a crucial step in decarbonizing transport.”

Noemie Turner, vice president of technology development and commercialization at BP, added, “We’re excited that commercial-scale use of our Fischer Tropsch technology built on a foundation of top-class research and development, in collaboration with our technology partner Johnson Matthey could help support the decarbonization of the transport sector.”

Johnson Matthey and BP have been developing FT technology together over a number of years and have collaborated over the past decade to accelerate this latest enhanced technology.

* Editor’s Note: Biobased Diesel Daily first shared the news of Fulcrum’s milestone Dec. 21.