Holland & Hausberger’s XtEL™ Technology is a chemical and energy production process that has international application potential for the cogeneration of liquid fuels, power, and commodity chemicals. This technology benefits from ongoing improvements being developed and implemented by H&H, arising from a rigorous laboratory testing programme.

Cogeneration of liquid fuels, power, and commodity chemicals

H&H’s technology is economically viable for processes an order of magnitude smaller than the competing technologies. This opportunity to economically realise smaller scale processes and resources also allows the technology to target such opportunities as run-of-mine coal fines and gas flares as resources for fuel and power generation. This combines the environmental benefits of such utilisation with the realisation of value from these otherwise wasted opportunities.

The technology is extremely customer-driven in respect of the implementation model. As is well known in the area of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, the range of products that can be produced can be varied significantly through the choice of catalyst and the design of the process. Subject to the customer requirements, these can vary from a predominantly gasoline, to predominantly diesel or jet fuel or wax product. In addition, the relative amount of power generation can be adjusted in the design of the process to optimise the economic opportunity.

The technology is a once-through (no recycle) process, which is broadly represented by the diagram below:

H&H has developed several innovations for its technology, including:

• Novel process design — This is embodied in the design of the process to a single-pass operation without recycle. This has the net impact of reducing the capital investment, while simultaneously creating a tailgas stream that is the basis for the integrated power generation component of the technology. This design change has also necessitated the usage of novel catalysts to those in the market currently, which are not suitable for higher conversion operation.


• New catalyst — The new catalyst, and its activation and usage, are critical to the economic and technical viability of the technology. The catalyst is continuously being improved through an exhaustive series of microreactor tests to enhance its performance over a wide range of operational conditions.


• Other proprietary improvements — A number of other proprietary innovations are used to increase the productivity of the process, suppress methanation, and improve the selectivity.

H&H’s XtEL™ Technology offers the following advantages over the currently commercially available technologies in the field of Fischer–Tropsch:

• Higher efficiency of carbon utilisation
• Lower feedstock, water, and carbon requirements per tonne of product
• Lower carbon emissions per tonne of product
• Lower capital and operating cost per unit production
• Modular design allowing for flexible scaling of plant capacity
• Economically viable implementation on scales an order of magnitude smaller than other technologies