TCat-8® Pilot Plant

Anellotech’s patented Bio-TCat™ process was demonstrated with pulpwood feedstocks at its TCat-8® demo plant near Houston, Texas. Located inside the Trecora chemical production site in Silsbee, TCat-8 is operated by Anellotech with support from Trecora plant operators. 

Anellotech’s work at TCat-8 was focused on converting MinFree™ pine wood into hydrocarbons on a continuous, sustained basis, process optimization, collecting data needed for commercial scale Bio-TCat design and filling drums with tons of hydrocarbon for product development work. TCat-8’s operation confirmed product yields and catalyst performance with extensive time on stream.

TCat-8 test demonstrated consistently stable operation of major process steps and recycle loops, with highly-accurate analytic confirmation. Every major aspect of conversion process reactor technology development was included in the program.

The pilot plant was operated for over 7,500 hours with continuous catalyst circulation including a fluid bed reactor, catalyst stripper, catalyst regenerator, quench tower and recycle compressor. TCat-8 was operated with mass balance closures of 100% +/-2% and uninterrupted 24/7 runs were regularly completed, inside a commercial Trecora chemical facility that is OSHA PSM compliant.

Anellotech's plans to also use its TCat-8 test unit to demonstrate and provide scale-up bases for commercial design in the ongoing plastics conversion development program Plas-TCat™.