Wärtsilä Leading Power-to-X Research Project

Wärtsilä has been granted funding of €1 million to support its research in the field of Power-to-X technology.

The X-Ahead project is aimed at developing deep expertise of both the technical and business potential of Power-to-X, which will be used to promote a carbon-neutral economy for Finland. It will also act as a base for defining Wärtsilä’s role in this field as part of the global transition to carbon-neutral solutions. The funding has been granted by Business Finland, a state-run public agency for funding important research projects. Power-to-X is an umbrella term for various emerging technologies that utilize renewable electricity, CO₂ captured from the air or directly from emissions streams and combining it with hydrogen to create carbon-neutral and renewable synthetic fuels. The overall goal is to replace fossil fuels with these renewable synthetic fuels to mitigate climate change.

Under its X-Ahead project, Wärtsilä will form and lead a network of universities, research industries, and small and medium-sized enterprises on a national, as well as a global scale. This will result in the development of an effective ecosystem around Power-to-X research, which will be enriched with best global practices to produce meaningful national and international benefits, the company said in a news release.

“Wärtsilä has been actively working on the Power-to-X concept since 2018, during which we have gained a thorough general understanding of the technology,” said Tommi Rintamäki, senior manager, Power-to-X, Wärtsilä Energy Business. “We are now building on this via the X-Ahead project, which will significantly improve the efficiency and feasibility of all processes relating to the development of Power-to-X technology. It gives us a brilliant opportunity to speed up the move to a 100 percent renewable energy future.”

“A strong ecosystem of leading industrial companies like Wärtsilä together with innovative and agile Finnish universities form an excellent base to find concrete novel solutions to mitigate climate change and turn the research into industrial business,” said Helena Sarén, head of Smart Energy, Business Finland.

The project will start this year and will run for approximately two and a half years. Wärtsilä’s existing expertise in market analytics will support the research’s focus on the most promising ways to develop Power-to-X technology. Furthermore, X-Ahead will provide valuable insight into the possibilities related to synthetic fuel production and create many new jobs in the field.