CLEAN fuel company Oxford Catalysts is to build a pilot plant in Brazil to demonstrate its technology to convert waste gas into liquid fuel.

Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil corporation and the largest company in Latin America, will fund the installation and operating costs, while the cost of the plant itself, put at ‘several tens of millions of dollars’, will be met by the Oxford company's Japanese partners Toyo Engineering and Modec.

Oxford Catalysts' chief executive Roy Lipski hopes a successful demonstration will lead to the first commercial orders for its small-scale technology. Another partner, Japanese steel maker Kobe Steel, would manufacture the equipment.

Oxford Catalysts has also signed a £3m deal with PTT, the Thai state-owned energy company to develop its method of converting ‘stranded’ gas from oil fields.

The company, based at Milton Park, near Abingdon, says its process can work on a much smaller scale than is currently feasible Mr Lipski said: “This represents a crucial milestone in the development of our small scale technology.”