This month we’re excited to be commencing some new development work in our Gladstone laboratory. We have upgraded our “MFA Bench” which is a mini benchtop version of our process for extracting oil from rock. We will be using this equipment to see what happens when we change the heat up rate and temperature of the extraction process.

We think that by changing how quickly we heat up the rock and what temperature we get to, it might be possible to improve the energy efficiency of our process. During the laboratory trials we will gather all kinds of information about the gas and oil produced as well as the energy needed for different processing conditions. A more efficient process means less energy input and lower emissions. The work is part of our on-going efforts to ensure that our extraction process is world class, and not one bit of energy is wasted.