Kvasir receives grant from Innovation Fund Denmark’s Missionbooster program to scale sustainable aviation fuel

Copenhagen March 24, 2023

"Imagine a world where you fly green… that can happen in a not too distant future. We are grateful for the Missionbooster grant because it brings us one step closer to making that happen, as we prepare our proprietary solids to liquid technology for scaling”, says CEO, Co-founder and inventor of the Kvasir Technology, Joachim Bachmann Nielsen.

Reducing CO2 in the transport sector is one of society’s most important tasks in the green transition. The aviation sector is particularly challenged, because it is currently not possible to replace fossil based jet fuel directly with electricity or hydrogen and current e-fuel and P2X technologies are too costly.

“Our technology makes it possible to swap fossil fuels directly with bio-based fuels in the future. That will make it easier for hard to decarbonize sectors, both marine or aviation, to transition more smoothly to low-cost sustainable transportation, because they can continue to use the same engine technology they already use today”, says Joachim.

The Missionbooster grant will fund the great collaboration Kvasir has already established with the advanced Biofuels Research Group from Aalborg University, Denmark, AAU Energy.

“The Missionbooster recognition of our technology allows us to prove the scalability of sustainable aviation fuels so we can speed up our time to market. Rather today than tomorrow, the world desperately needs to go off fossil fuels – just read the latest IPCC report, it speaks for itself”, Joachim continues.

Together with researchers from AAU Energy, Kvasir will build and scale up a small-scale reactor and subsequent refinery at laboratory level. They will also test the right conditions to develop a bio crude oil and subsequent bio aviation fuel so pure and rich that it can – directly and without further processing – replace fossil-based products.

“We need to be more creative in terms of what type of biomass feedstock we can utilize for future fuels. It must be abundantly available and not compete with edible feedstock or impact land use negatively. That’s why we explore new feedstock types to liquify at low cost with our technology”, says Joachim.

Based on its technology, Kvasir can produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from abundantly available low value biomass such as agricultural waste residue. One example of what feedstock Kvasir’s solid to liquid technology can deal with is cereal crop residue. It is a heavily underutilized resource today, and the quantities produced as a byproduct from sustainable farming alone could address the global demand for jet fuel.

Read more about the Missionbooster program