Kvasir Technologies

– established in 2018 as a spin-out company from the DTU under the motto: Change the fuel, not the engine

 

 

The project

To reduce the CO2 emissions from shipping, we need new CO2 neutral fuels to meet both Danish and international emission reduction targets. To this end, Kvasir has developed an innovative Solvent Liquefaction (SL) technology for converting biomass (lignocellulose) from unutilized agricultural residues (e.g., straw) into a high-quality drop-in maritime biofuel that can be used directly in vessel engines.

1st Mile’s Work with Kvasir

In the autumn 2022, 1st Mile wrote Kvasir’s application for EUDP funding for a project aiming to scale up an already tested pilot plant (1 litre oil per hour) for the production of straw-fuel-oil to a demonstration plant (50-75 litres per hour) which will include the design, construction and operation of the plant. The project also involves the validation of the straw-based maritime fuel on a real ship engine.

The produced biofuel will have several advantages compared to other currently available biofuel solutions, among them:

  • No switching costs, since the high quality green drop-in fuel requires zero engine and infrastructure adjustments for switching between fuel types.
  • Cheaper than alternative biofuels. Compared to other biofuels, the oil produced by Kvasir will be up to 50% cheaper.
  • Effective valorisation of 2.2 million tons unutilized straw p.a. in Denmark to a marine fuel, which will contribute up to 4.6 million ton of CO2-eq in GHG savings.

The partners in the project are Crossbridge Energy – a Danish refinery with the needed skills, capabilities, and resources to build and operate a biofuel plant. The second partner is the shipping company NORDEN which will run a full-scale validation on a vessel with the fuel produced at the demonstration plant. The third partner is the Energy Department at Aalborg University who will help by supporting the design and production with their vast knowledge of biofuels.

Once concluded with success, the project will deliver the knowledge base and precise assumptions needed for Crossbridge and other refineries to make investment decisions to build and operate commercial-scale plants (+1,000 litre per hour).

“1st Mile helped us define and describe our project in the format required by EUDP. Now that we have received the EUDP grant, we can accelerate the development of our technology and together with the partners we will be able to make the commercial validation needed for full scale implementation of our technology.”

Anders Bak Kristoffersen

Co-founder and COO, Kvasir Technologies