Technology

Cat-HTR™.
Hydrothermal liquefaction at commercial scale.

Two decades of development. A platform that converts wet biomass directly into a stable, refinable biocrude in roughly forty minutes — under licence from Licella Holdings.

Why hydrothermal liquefaction

The right route to refinery-ready sustainable fuel.

Most biofuel routes are forced into compromises. Fermentation handles only sugars and demands dry, sorted feedstocks. Pyrolysis produces an oxygenated, acidic, unstable bio-oil. Gasification-and-synthesis requires complex catalyst chains and very high capital cost per tonne.

Hydrothermal liquefaction works directly on whole biomass — wet, mixed, lignocellulosic — by using water itself, held above its critical point, as a reactive solvent. The resulting biocrude is stable, fungible with fossil crude, and can be refined into jet, marine, and chemical streams using existing infrastructure with no engine modification needed downstream.

Cat-HTR™ takes this principle and operationalises it: continuous fast-batch processing, catalytically enhanced, and engineered to scale through parallel reactor trains.

Process

From field to fuel in a single processing flow.

01
Feedstock intake

Wet, mixed agricultural waste accepted directly. Moisture 10–90%, no drying.

02
Slurry preparation

Sized, mixed with recycled water, brought to reactor pressure.

03
Hydrothermal reaction

Supercritical water deconstructs biomass. ~40 min, 280–320°C.

04
Phase separation

Biocrude separates by density. Water and ash recovered for reuse.

05
Refining & upgrading

Conventional refining produces drop-in jet, marine, and chemical streams.

Cat-HTR™ accepts agricultural and forestry residues at moisture levels and feedstock variability that defeat competing routes — converting them into a stable, refinery-ready biocrude in a single processing flow. Process water is recycled in a closed loop. Ash and aqueous co-products are returned to agricultural and industrial markets.

Performance characteristics

Engineered for industrial scale.

Reaction time
~40min

Continuous fast-batch processing.

Moisture tolerance
10–90%

No drying step required.

Energy conversion
~78%

Industry-leading HTL efficiency.

Scalability
Parallel
reactors

Modular reactor trains scale plant capacity.

Operating pressure
~250bar

Supercritical aqueous regime.

Operating temperature
280–320°C

HTL operating window.

Output
Refinery-
ready biocrude

Refined into SAF, marine diesel, chemicals.

By-products
Ash &
aqueous co-product

Returned to agriculture; closed-loop water.

Licence position

Operating Cat-HTR™ under licence from Licella.

ABGL operates Cat-HTR™ under licence from Licella Holdings, the technology owner. The commercial relationship is structured through a joint venture between ABGL and Licella.

The licence governs ABGL's right to deploy Cat-HTR™ at scale, supported by Licella's continued involvement as technology partner. Licella retains all underlying intellectual property and provides ongoing technical support to licensees.

Commercial structure

Joint venture with Licella Holdings — Agri-Biofuels Licence Company Ltd (Co. No. 16693418).

Technology partner

Licella retains ownership of all underlying intellectual property and provides ongoing technical support.

Want a deeper technical briefing?

We provide detailed engineering data and process diagrams to qualified investors and counterparties under non-disclosure.