Haldor Topsoe: Biofuels Digest’s 2014 5-Minute Guide

Company description:

Haldor Topsoe is a privately-held catalyst and licensed technology company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Our business is to develop heterogeneous catalyst and the associated process technology in the refinery industry, petrochemical industry, and power industry.

For the renewable fuels business, Haldor Topsoe has developed an extensive catalyst portfolio as well as a proprietary licensed hydroprocessing technology for the production of ASTM D-975 renewable diesel as well as renewable jet fuel. Typical feedstocks used in Haldor Topsoe’s process technology for making renewable fuels are vegetable oils (triglycerides), restaurant grease (free fatty acid), chicken and beef tallow, pyrolysis oil, and black liquor from the forest industry.

Business Model:

Licensor of the technology and delivery of proprietary catalyst and hardware.

Past Milestones:

Haldor Topsoe’s proprietary catalyst and technology are currently used in 14 plants producing renewable diesel from the above mentioned feedstocks. The production facilities range from 8 to 80 million gallons per year of renewable diesel.

Competitive Edge:

Haldor Topsoe has developed a selective de-oxygenation catalyst (HDO) designated TK-341 which will eliminate the formation of CO2 when processing the renewable feedstock. The benefits are significantly higher liquid yield of diesel and significantly lower capital cost due to the elimination of the amine scrubbing unit in our licensed design. A higher liquid yield combined with a lower capital cost results in a technology solution with the highest ROI.