Nordic Electrofuel is a Norwegian deep tech scale-up on a mission to make aviation sustainable. Founded in 2015, the company has developed an innovative electric Sustainable Aviation Fuel (e-SAF), which can be used directly in existing aircraft, without the need for modifications or additional infrastructure.
With Nordic Electrofuel joining EIC Scaling Club’s Clean Fuels & Hydrogen market group, we caught up with Aina Hegrestad, the company’s CFO, at the Scale 100 Forum in Athens, Greece. In the interview, Aina shares insights into the company’s solution, roadmap, team, and more.
You can also listen to the interview recording here (or watch the video below):
The aviation sector faces significant pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Nordic Electrofuel is tackling this challenge head-on with its patented technology that uses water, CO2, and renewable electric power in Norway to create e-SAF. This fuel is designed to be a direct replacement for conventional jet fuel, meaning it can be used in existing aircraft without the need for new infrastructure, making the green transition more economically viable and giving the company a significant competitive advantage over alternatives such as hydrogen.
“Our mission is simple – to make aviation green by producing electric sustainable aviation fuel. When you use it, it has a clean combustion, which means that you don’t get any contrails and you don’t make cirrus clouds, which are said to be even more dangerous to global warming, compared to the CO2.”
Nordic Electrofuel holds two key patents: one for its innovative reactor technology and another for using blast furnace gas as feedstock for e-SAF production, both reducing CO2 emissions and promoting cleaner air travel.
The company has successfully developed its technology and is currently in the pilot stage, poised to build its first pilot plant in Norway, which nonetheless will boast commercial-scale capacity – though less than future plants. Aina explains that this strategic move allows the company to de-risk the project and validate its technology on a smaller scale before expanding.
“We’re using a standardized reactor for the first plant, but then – as a separate stream – we’re validating a cutting-edge reactor that we have made ourselves, and that’s what we’re planning to use for the large-scale plants going forward.”
Aina explains that their approach can use 10% less energy, leading to lower OPEX, while also reducing CAPEX through the need for fewer units and components, hence having more stable production.
Nordic Electrofuel boasts experience few scale-ups can match, with tenured veterans intimately familiar with large-scale projects, work in billion-euro industries, as well as the technical intricacies required of an e-SAF endeavour.
The team is led by founder Rolf Bruknapp, with a background in hydropower, and CEO Gunnar Holen, a former investment banker and co-founder of Norge Mining, whereas CTO Bjørn Bringedal brings extensive experience from the chemistry industry. The current team of 12 professionals possesses a wealth of knowledge across various critical areas, driving the project forward.
Nordic Electrofuel has no shortage of noteworthy achievements. To date, the company has raised €15 million to fund its research and development. They also secured a €40 million grant from the EU Innovation Fund. “Not only did it validate our technology, but it also provided critical funding for us,” Aina noted, emphasizing the grant as a testament to the project's leading position in Europe's e-SAF landscape.
“It is the only e-SAF project to have gotten support from the EU innovation fund as of now.”
Aina also mentions finalizing their FEED (front end engineering design) as a major milestone, which puts them ahead of their competitors. As does having rock solid, long-term 100% offtake agreements for their first plant’s production.
In terms of challenges – there have been plenty. From securing funding and offtake agreements to acquiring permits and grid access, Nordic Electrofuel’s journey has been a lengthy and measured one stretching a decade. Aina credits the team’s collaborative effort in overcoming all of these hurdles.
“Now, we have everything in place and it’s just the final part of the funding – the equity part – which is missing before we can launch the tender and start building our first plant.”
With the technology ready, Nordic Electrofuel hopes to have the first drops of fuel by late 2027. “We’re looking for between €80-100 million so that we can fully finance the first plant,” explains Aina, adding that they hope to scale from there and have large-scale plants up and running before 2030.
“We have plans for at least 6 additional plants in Norway, so we will produce a billion litres in Norway by 2034 on a yearly basis. But we also see very large interest from the rest of Europe and the world, especially the Middle East. They are actively trying to convince us to come build plants there, so we see that by 2035 we could at least triple the volume we have planned in Norway.”
Though their ambitions are big, Aina reminds us that they’re a small company and despite having fantastic technology, they need more visibility, which is what they hope to get out of their Club membership.
“I believe that the EIC Scaling Club can help us gain necessary visibility. Access to investors, access to mentors, access to this group can help us elevate our brand – being part of this network is super important to us.”
Watch the full interview with Aina Hegrestad below, or visit our YouTube channel to explore more video content:
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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