Kvasir Technologies

Kvasir Technologies ApS (Kvasir) has developed and patented an innovative Solvent Liquefaction Technology (SLT) to convert biomass (lignocellulose) from forestry and agricultural residues (e.g., woodchips, straw, corn stover) into a high-quality biocrude. This biocrude, derived from residual biomass wastes, offers environmental benefits and a major fraction can be used directly in marine engines, replacing fossil fuels without requiring modifications to existing infrastructure. Smaller fractions can likely be used for road transport and as Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

Biocrude Utilization: The biocrude produced is of high quality and can through a liquid-to-liquid extraction be separated into a fraction (50%) used directly as maritime fuel without any upgrades or additives (complaint with ISO 8217 spec for B10 blend with conventional marine fuel oil), and a fraction that could be used as feedstock to a hydrocracking or FCC facility for further upgrading to light oils like gasoline (20%), SAF (15%) as well as further marine fuel (15%).
By-Products Utilization: The solid biogenic remains and other by-products can be further processed into valuable products like biogenic CO2, bitumen and biochar, adding to the overall efficiency and sustainability of the process.

The Kvasir STL process is very efficient with more than 80% of the carbon content and more than 80% of the energy stored in the biomass transferred to the biocrude.
The greenhouse gas emissions savings of emissions for Kvasir’s fuel is more than 96%, which is therefore close to being a fully carbon-neutral marine fuel (based on the fossil fuel comparator of 94 gCO2eq/MJ according to RED II directive).
Current TEA calculations are based on a 10,000 metric tons per year biocrude plant (2.6 mio. gallons) that we are using as a ‘unit-sizing’ since this allows for an upscaling factor of 15 times, which is considered to fall into the range a prudent engineering estimate of 10X - 15X for upscaling new technologies, compared to our Demonstration plant in Denmark having a design capacity of 2 metric tons per day.
Biomass prices delivered at plant are assumed to be obtained at no more than 150 USD per metric ton. The CAPEX less land lease for the 10,000 tpa plant is estimated at 50 mio. USD.
The biorefinery estimates for the production cost of the biocrude is approx. 700-900 USD pr. ton of biocrude. This is somewhat comparable to the sales price of fossil crude oil typically fluctuating in the range of 450-650 USD pr. ton, and fossil marine gas oil of approx. 800-900 USD pr. ton MGO at current rates.

No other technology offers a viable pathway to decarbonize shipping in the next decade, since traditional biofuels are limited by feedstock and technical challenges, and potential e-fuels are experiencing significant costs compared to fossil fuel (4X - 8X times increase) and requiring very large switching costs for the vessels with new engines and related infrastructure.
HVO and FAME biofuels are in commercial production today but are already severely feedstock constrained e.g. relying on used cooking oil and animal fats where existing volumes are already utilized.
Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) and pyrolysis are consistently experiencing clogging in their production processes and are only able to produce low-quality fuels that are not able to achieve commercially viable facilities. Further, the production costs of these processes and technologies are significantly higher compared to fossil fuel (3X increase).

Kvasir’s patented process with Solvothermal Liquefaction with re-circulating product oil addresses the technical and commercial challenges for the other technologies trying to be commercialized in scale – but where a quality drop-in bio-oil is produced from Kvasir, and
without creating clogging or charring in our process and with having pumpability significantly improved.
Further, as mentioned above our bio-oil is having very attractive production costs that allows for competitive pricing towards fossil alternatives – in particular, when we have upscaled our biorefinery facilities to achieve economies of scale in the biooil production.