Shares in a synthetic fuels specialist rose sharply today after a promising progress report on its key technology.

Bosses at Oxford Catalysts based in Milton Park said they were confident of securing a first commercial order after an ongoing successful trial of its Fischer-Tropsch <<ok>> unit.

The technology converts natural gas, coal or bio-mass into clean, high performance fuels and it is estimated that up to 25 million barrels of fuel a day can be produced.

The tests focus around a pilot unit which is in place in Gussing, Austria and are being conducted with the firm’s partner SGC Energia, a Portugese renewable energy company.

Roy Lipski, chief executive of Oxford Catalysts said: “Successful testing of our FT demonstration is an important step closer to validation of our technology in the field, paving the way for commercial roll out with our partner SGCE.”

Shares rose more than nine per cent on the news to 81.96p this morning.

In February the firm revealed it is to build a pilot plant in Brazil to demonstrate its technology to convert waste gas into liquid fuel and revealed it had signed a £3m deal with PTT, the Thai state-owned energy company to develop its method of converting ‘stranded’ gas from oil fields.