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Danish catalyst specialist Haldor Topsoe A/S has announced its plan to close Topsoe Fuel Cell A/S, a subsidiary company within the Topsoe group focused on the development and commercialization of components and technology for high temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC).

As part of the planned closure, Haldor Topsoe says it will put all development of its SOFC technology on hold and focus on the development of selected applications in solid oxide electrolysis cell development (SOEC). Activities related to this specific area will be moved to Haldor Topsoe during the second half of 2014.

Haldor Topsoe expects that approximately 90 employees will be made redundant in Topsoe Fuel Cell as a consequence of the closure. The company currently employs 117 employees in total.

"We believe focusing on SOEC and merging the activities with the extensive competencies of the mother company is the right path forward with the prospect of commercializing concrete products within a relatively short time-frame. By narrowing our focus and integrating the know-how in the two companies we can leverage the technology and knowledge gained through decades of fuel cell research, however with a significant scale-down of the investment level needed,” said Bjerne S. Clausen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Haldor Topsoe.

"Over the years we have invested close to 1.5 billion DKK in commercializing our technology, but the route to market has proven far more challenging and time-consuming than anticipated. As the sole owner of Topsoe Fuel Cell, we can no longer justify the investments and risk needed to move the company forward. SOFC remains a challenging technology and significant additional investments are needed. In addition, future success is highly dependent on the evolution of regulation, energy costs and markets," he added.

Haldor Topsoe said it expects the closure of Topsoe Fuel Cell to lead to an asset impairment of up to DKK 200 million in the second half of the financial year 2014. The closure, however, will increase the free cash flow from 2015 onwards freeing capital for other investments, the company said.

Marine projects

As reported earlier this year, Haldor Topsoe was involved in carrying out selective catalytic reduction (SCR) tests of the MX-SCR system at the Marine Exhaust Technology A/S (MET) test facility in Frederikshavn, Denmark. Following the tests, MET said: "The MX-SCR system is now fully proven as the most effective and compact SCR-solution in the marine market including both vertical and horizontal solutions in customised installation setups."

In 2011, Bunker Index reported the involvement of Haldor Topsoe in a retrofit project in which methanol is reformed onboard to user-friendly Di-Methyl-Ether.

"It's perfect for the diesel process, meets ECA requirements and is also an economic winner since methanol and LNG are about the same price alongside ship," Per Stefenson, marine standards advisor and R&D manager at Sweden's Stena group, was quoted as saying at the 2011 Interferry conference, where it was suggested that methanol could be 'the fuel of the future'.