How Topsoe is helping the aviation industry transition to cleaner fuels
Founded in the 1940s, Topsoe has always been committed to the idea of creating a better world. As early as 1988, Founder Dr Haldor Topsøe foresaw the climate challenges we face today. “The greenhouse effect will reach a point of no return, but we can postpone this through a more efficient use of fossil fuels and continued expansion of renewable energy.”
Henrik Rasmussen, Managing Director for Topsoe in the Americas, highlights the growing demand for these solutions. “In the US there is tremendous interest in blue ammonia, blue hydrogen, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel, as well as for green hydrogen and green ammonia. In 2024, there have been some delays in projects because our clients are waiting for clarification around subsidies available under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but these delays have not significantly deterred any of the projects. There is still a great deal of excitement about these projects and the opportunities they will bring.
“The Inflation Reduction Act has definitely worked as intended,” Henrik continues, “project money from all over the world is coming to the US. It has had a very positive impact on our business, we are growing at a very rapid rate thanks to all the new projects we are winning. At Topsoe, we firmly believe we have the best technology for blue ammonia and blue hydrogen at scale. Our customers and the market agree and that is why we have a very large success rate in these projects and see it as a huge part of our growth engine going forward.”
Henrik expands on the capabilities that make this possible. “We have technology that is ideally suited to producing low-carbon ammonia and low-carbon hydrogen. As a technology licensor, we supply the know-how to our customers so they can build, own and operate the plants themselves, producing low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia for use across the globe and in countries that need decarbonized energy but don’t have the capabilities to sequestrate carbon dioxide. The Southern states here in the US have a geology that is excellent for this process, enabling us to capture more than 99 percent of the carbon dioxide coming from the natural gas being used.”
Henrik goes on to explain how the Topsoe business is meeting the increased demand for these technologies. “For sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for example, there are a number of technologies we can use. Topsoe’s licensees of renewable fuels technology in the US are now the leading producers of SAF from fats, oils, and grease. We also have technology to support several other ways of producing SAF, for instance from the gasification of biomass. We are supporting that journey with our customers through a number of different technology pathways, including the use of Topsoe’s electrolyze technology (Solid Oxide Fuels Cells – SOEC). The SOEC technology produces green H2 from water using renewable electricity and this green H2 can be used to produce SAF in combination with biogenic CO2.”
Henrik then outlines some of the challenges in the SAF landscape and the potential solutions. “While we have licensed several plants which are in operation, a cost of production can be higher than that of fossil fuels thus requiring subsidies. The current main pathway, HEFA, which utilizes fats, oils and grease is the most cost effective of all the various pathways, but it has other limitations, namely the supply of the used cooking oils and fat used in the process. The other SAF pathways are more expensive, but are necessary to meet the future SAF demand, so a long-term off take commitment from the airlines at a higher fuels price is required to make these projects viable, which is likely to result in an increased cost for consumers.”
Henrik expands on the role these technologies have in creating a decarbonized future. “It’s not realistic to just switch off oil and gas after building up the infrastructure for more than 100 years. This low-cost energy also provides us with a quality-of-life people aren’t willing to give up. There are ways of mitigating it though, we can decarbonize the production of fossil fuel by incorporating blue hydrogen into the refining process for example. Demand for energy is also still increasing by around four percent a year and the world is currently consuming about 100 million barrels a day. This energy demand simply can’t be replaced rapidly, so we need to develop all the technologies we can, and while we are doing this, we need to maximize the new methods of mitigating and decarbonizing the existing processes. We need all the energy pathways as we decarbonize and transition our energy supply. Low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia, and green hydrogen and ammonia are an essential part of the way we can do this.” 
Research and development (R&D) is a fundamental part of Topsoe’s DNA, which makes it well positioned to meet the current and future challenges. Henrik explains how it collaborates with customers to innovate these technologies further. “Our customers come to us with their wishes, and, thanks to our significant R&D resources and a culture of innovation, we are able to bring solutions to the customer that meets their needs.”
One example of an emerging innovation is making SAF from ethanol. Henrik expands: “We believe this will be of increasing interest in the future. It’s not the entire solution but we believe it will play a part alongside all of the other SAF pathways. This is why we are licensing many different SAF pathways; transitioning will require all of these technologies, many of which are already commercialized. In time, we believe ethanol will also become a commercially viable part of the solution.”
Henrik looks ahead and outlines the company’s plans for a rapidly evolving future. “As we continue to grow, we will maintain a solid foothold in the fossil industry as long as it is a needed part of the energy mix. We will continue to grow our renewables business alongside our decarbonization technologies. As these areas grow, we expect that the majority of Topsoe’s business will come from the decarbonization of the world.”