Press Release: With a total investment of EUR 15 million, Vaekstfonden, the Danish Growth Fund and the German engine manufacturer DEUTZ AG will enter as investors in Blue World Technologies. The aim is to bring the company’s green fuel cell products and solutions to the global market.
In October, it was announced that Vaekstfonden and DEUTZ AG started a due diligence process with the intention to invest in the Danish fuel cell developer and manufacturer Blue World Technologies. This process has now been completed and Vaekstfonden and DEUTZ are therefore each investing EUR 7.5 million in the company. With Vaekstfonden and DEUTZ as investors, Blue World Technologies is also in a strong position concerning a potential stock exchange listing in the future.
Since the beginning of 2021, Blue World Technologies has been working to establish a factory to produce the core components for the fuel cell stacks and systems at their headquarters in Aalborg, Denmark. During the year, the company has insourced the entire production of membranes, electrodes, and separator plates. With the new investment, Blue World Technologies will work towards starting serial production to get the company ready to send fuel cells and systems to industries around the world.
“With a short history of only three years, we have moved quickly in many ways, and with these new investments we are now accelerating the industrialisation of our methanol fuel cell technology even more,” says Anders Korsgaard, Co-founder and CEO of Blue World Technologies. “Both Vaekstfonden and DEUTZ are really strong and experienced investors who can support Blue World, both in relation to the further development of the company, large-scale production, and with market access. We have had an exciting and good collaboration in the recent months, and we look forward to continuing exploring that”.
With an expectation of producing 500 MW fuel cells at the factory in Aalborg, Denmark when the full production capacity is achieved within the next couple of years, the company takes a big step towards getting the methanol fuel cell technology out on the market, where it will contribute to reducing both CO2 and air pollution.
The promising potential and innovative technology have contributed to the company now closing the investment round. The Danish Growth Fund, Vaekstfonden, is also pleased that Danish technology can contribute to the global green transition:
“With our investment in Blue World Technologies, we look forward to contributing to the promotion of Danish sustainable technology. It is important that we have companies in Denmark that take the big and crucial step from laboratory production to large-scale commercial production. This step requires large investments in production facilities, and with this investment, we are happy to be able to contribute to getting methanol fuel cells out on the market, where they will make a difference for both our climate and environment,” says Rolf Kjærgaard CEO at Vaekstfonden – the Danish Growth Fund.
The listed German engine manufacturer DEUTZ also see great potential for Blue World Technologies:
“The investment and the collaboration with Blue World Technologies are in line with our activities within the development of climate-neutral drive-systems at DEUTZ,” says Dr Frank Hiller, CEO of DEUTZ AG and continues: “We are generally experiencing great interest in our climate-neutral solutions, and we also experienced this in November, when Blue World Technologies presented their products to our customers and partners at the annual DEUTZ DAYS. The interest that has been generated is overwhelming and we look forward to seeing the potential of our collaboration unfold in the coming years”.
The investment from Vaekstfonden is supported by the European Investment Bank with the backing of the European Union through EFSI.
Contributing to the green agenda
The 8,500 m2 production building that Blue World Technologies took over in February, will be one of the world’s largest fuel cell factories within high-temperature PEM technology. At the factory, methanol fuel cell stacks and systems will be manufactured for a wide variety of industries within the stationary and the transportation sector where it will act as a green alternative to conventional combustion engines or generators.
For the past couple of years, the global interest in Power-to-X, where electricity is transformed into fuels that e.g., can be used in the transportation sector, has increased significantly. World-leading players throughout the Power-to-X value-chain has invested heavily throughout the methanol value-chain, from production to utilisation. Earlier this year A.P. Moller – Maersk announced that they will operate the world’s first carbon-neutral liner vessel by 2023 and later they announced that they in 2024 will introduce the first of eight large ocean-going container vessels, all powered by methanol. On the production side of renewable methanol, more and more larger projects are announced, recently it was Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a fund management company focused on renewable energy infrastructure, that announced a collaboration on building one of the world’s first commercial Power-to-X plants where methanol is to be produced from waste CO2 and green electricity. Blue World Technologies, which is part of the utilisation in the Power-to-X value-chain, is also experiencing increasing interest and is currently working together with several leading OEMs on system development within a wide variety of industries e.g., within the transportation sector where the methanol fuel cell technology has a large potential.
