Syntholene Energy has completed construction of its geothermal-integrated Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell (SOEC) demonstration facility in Húsavík, Iceland, nearly six months ahead of schedule.
According to the clean energy company, the project incorporates its proprietary thermal-hybrid architecture and was delivered under budget. Operations at the site have commenced.
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Construction of the demonstration facility required 69 days from the permit announcement, including fabrication, delivery, installation and integration of several core systems.
These comprise Syntholene’s Thermal Coupling Heat Exchanger, water treatment equipment, the SOEC module, instrumentation and controls, and the balance-of-plant infrastructure.
The Thermal Coupling Heat Exchanger was fabricated in 42 days, while factory acceptance and commissioning of the SOEC module were achieved significantly ahead of the original schedule, the company said.
Syntholene CEO Dan Sutton said: “Completing a first of its kind energy facility ahead of schedule and under budget is rare. Achievement of this milestone reflects the quality of our engineering team, project partners and execution discipline.
“Syntholene has now graduated from concept and prototyping into real-world operations. Over the next few months of effects testing, we seek to demonstrate practically that geothermally integrated SOEC hydrogen production can materially improve the economics of synthetic fuel.”
The facility is the first fully integrated field deployment of Syntholene’s thermal-hybrid system and will be used for operational testing and systems validation.
Data collection at the site is expected to start soon, with plans to publish initial results on efficiency and technoeconomic performance as early as the fourth quarter of 2026.
Syntholene has designed the demonstration facility to assess cost and energy efficiencies achieved when geothermal heat is combined with high-temperature electrolysis for hydrogen production, a key feedstock for synthetic fuels.
The process aims to substitute part of the electrical input typically used in electrolysis with geothermal energy, which the company believes could lower electricity consumption compared with conventional methods.
Testing will focus on continuous operational integration between geothermal heat, SOEC hydrogen production, energy recovery and supporting infrastructure.
Syntholene intends for the resulting data to inform further engineering development and evaluation of commercial projects.
Sutton said: “Syntholene’s next objective is to generate operational data from this real geothermally integrated infrastructure, validating the impact of low-cost geothermal heat integration with high-temperature electrolysis. If successful, we believe this could represent a meaningful advancement toward cost-competitive synthetic aviation fuel.”
