The HCCO process worked in a full-size vessel at PX Energy. The next test will target continuous operation. Questerre aims to cut fuel costs at the Brazil facility.
Questerre Energy said its HCCO oil shale technology worked in a full commercial-sized vessel for the first time. The test took place at PX Energy’s facility in southern Brazil. Earlier trials used smaller lab-scale reactors.
The company called the result a de-risking step. It proved the engineering and technical validity of the patented process at a scale that could eventually be used in a commercial greenfield project. The next test will run longer and focus on defining the operating parameters needed for continuous operation.
Questerre plans to install the technology at the PX facility to cut the site’s internal fuel oil consumption. That would strengthen the project’s economics. In parallel, the company is feeding these results into the design of a small-scale commercial demonstration plant for HCCO.
CEO Michael Binnion said the test showed the technology works outside the lab. “We anticipate this will further bring down our costs and improve the economics of the PX project,” he said in the release. “It moves us closer to a commercial demonstration of HCCO.”
The company holds a significant natural gas discovery in Quebec’s Utica shale, a resource it describes as one of the most important undeveloped gas deposits in Eastern Canada. That asset is separate from the HCCO oil shale technology being tested in Brazil. Questerre’s stock trades on the TSX and Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker QEC.
Investors tracking the stock will watch three milestones: completion of the longer continuous-run test, the start of commercial deployment at PX, and a final investment decision on the demonstration plant. The current test removes one technical risk but leaves two unanswered: whether the process can run without interruption at target throughput, and whether the fuel-cost savings at PX justify the capital outlay on their own, before any greenfield project.
The company’s forward-looking statements caution that actual results may differ. Risks include additional funding needs, operational challenges at the demonstration stage, and commodity price volatility that could shift the economics of oil shale projects.
For now the headline is clear: a lab technology survived the jump to commercial-scale hardware. The next report, when it comes, will say whether it can do the same over days and weeks, not hours.
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