Meet the Members: Topsoe

Topsoe has been a steering member of the Hydrogen Council since 2022 and recently became a board member in January 2024. Why was it important for Topsoe to join the Council? And what value does being a member bring to your company?

As a technology company operating at the forefront of research and development in low-carbon and green hydrogen, we are dedicated to making hydrogen a success in cutting emissions in energy-intensive industries and long-distance transportation.

This is why it was important for us to join the Hydrogen Council in its efforts to establish a thriving global economy for hydrogen. We want to actively support the critical work done by the Council in maturing the market by advocating for appropriate framework conditions and incentive schemes throughout the Hydrogen value chain.

A major factor for us to become members of the Hydrogen Council was the opportunity to collaborate with other hydrogen frontrunners and ambitious industrial players, who share the same vision and eagerness to make the clean hydrogen revolution reality.

As a member of the Council, how does Topsoe collaborate with other members to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen ecosystems around the world?

We do this by taking part in joint projects and studies, where members utilize their expertise and resources to develop and implement innovative hydrogen solutions.

We also work together to advocate for policies and regulation that support the global market growth and hydrogen industry. And in general, together with other members we strive to raise awareness about the benefits of hydrogen and promote its adoption across various sectors.

Topsoe recently announced plans for a new state-of-the-art US electrolyser factory for clean hydrogen. Tell us more about this and some other exciting hydrogen-related projects Topsoe is involved in?

We’re very excited about the fact that we’ve recently been granted a USD 136 million tax credit allocation through the Inflation Reduction Act for a new SOEC manufacturing facility in Virginia in the US. This new factory – which is still pending our final investment decision – will produce electrolyzer stacks for production of green hydrogen and will, together with our SOEC (Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell) factory in Denmark, secure production capacity both in North America and in Europe. We’re also delivering solutions for low-carbon hydrogen production for some of the world’s biggest fuel producers.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge in the field of hydrogen? And how is Topsoe working to address this challenge? 

The biggest challenge related to green hydrogen is getting it to a price point where everyone in the value chain can see a viable business case and therefore takes final investment decision – to move ahead. This goes for the entire value chain from the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), to the developer, to the offtaker. Getting to that price point requires support from governments.

For Topsoe specifically, we’re scaling up the much needed electrolyzers for production of green hydrogen to make sure the supply is there, which over time will contribute to lowering prices. There’s also the efficiency aspect – our SOEC technology requires less renewable power to produce the same amount of hydrogen than conventional electrolysis technologies and as renewable power input is the single biggest operating cost of producing green hydrogen.

What are Topsoe’s top three hydrogen-related goals and ambitions for 2024?

We’re looking into significant milestones this year. Finishing construction of our SOEC factory in Herning, Denmark is obviously a big deal. It will be one of the world’s largest factories of its kind and will serve as a reference project from us when building our next SOEC factory in the US.

We were thrilled to receive the acknowledgement the US Department of Energy allocating us USD 136 million for our planned factory in Virginia was fantastic news, and we’re looking forward to maturing the project ahead of its potential final investment decision.

Hopefully we’ll also partner up with more companies that are eager to produce green or low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives and believe that we have the right solutions to help their businesses.