Biogas-to-Oils (BTO)

Converting food waste digester gas into liquid transportation fuels

Location: Wasatch Resource Recovery, North Salt Lake, Utah
Funding: U.S. Department of Energy, Award DE-EE0008917
Partners: Wasatch Resource Recovery, BioFlight Fuels
Status: Engineering-scale pilot complete (2025), independently verified

Overview

OxEon Energy designed, built, and field-operated a fully integrated system that converts anaerobic digester gas into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Installed at Wasatch Resource Recovery's active food waste-to-energy facility, the pilot ran across three campaigns from July through December 2025 and met or exceeded every primary objective in the DOE Statement of Project Objectives, as confirmed by DOE-assigned Independent Engineers.

The result makes OxEon the only company to have demonstrated a fully integrated, three-technology biogas-to-liquids system at engineering scale under independent third-party verification.

Why it matters

Conventional biogas upgrading captures only the methane fraction of digester gas and vents the carbon dioxide. OxEon's BTO platform productively converts both the CH₄ and the CO₂ - turning a vented waste stream into additional liquid fuel and materially increasing the carbon yield from every unit of feedstock.

How it works

The BTO system integrates three proprietary technologies, all developed and manufactured in-house at OxEon:

• Solid Oxide Co-Electrolysis (SOEC)
  Converts byproduct bio-CO₂ and steam into synthesis gas through high-temperature electrolysis.
• Plasma-Catalyzed Autothermal Reformer
  Converts renewable natural gas (methane) into synthesis gas.
• Fischer-Tropsch (FT) Synthesis Reactor
  Combines the syngas streams and converts them into liquid hydrocarbon fuels

Both feedstocks, the RNG and the bio-CO₂, were supplied directly from the WRR digester on site.

Results at a glance

Vertical integration

Every core system was designed, fabricated, and tested at OxEon's Utah facility before being transported and commissioned in the field. A comprehensive HAZOP review was completed prior to field commissioning. That end-to-end ownership - R&D, process engineering, fabrication, systems integration, and field commissioning under one roof - removed the supply chain dependencies and technology interface risks that typically complicate multi-technology energy demonstrations.

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