Syntholene completes construction of synthetic fuel facility in Iceland supplied with geothermal heat
Husavik, Iceland (source: Husavik Energy)
Carlo Cariaga
23 Jun 2026
Syntholene Energy has completed construction of demonstration facility to produce synthetic fuel using geothermal heat for electrolysis in Husavik, Iceland.
Syntholene Energy Corp. (Syntholene) announced that it has completed construction of a geothermal-integrated Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell (SOEC) demonstration facility in Husavik, Iceland. The facility will act as the foundation for operational testing of synthetic fuel production using geothermal heat, the results of which are expected to be published as early as Q4 2026.
Earlier this year, the company announced the signing of a definitive Land Lease Agreement with the Norðurþing Municipality for the project site. Construction work only took 69 days, six months ahead of the company’s original development schedule and under budget. By using some of the existing infrastructure of the currently idle Husavik Power Station, early-stage civil works and capital requirement were reduced. The work included the fabrication, delivery, installation, and integration of critical systems. These systems included Syntholene’s proprietary Thermal Coupling Heat Exchanger system, SOEC module, water treatment systems, instrumentation and controls, and balance-of-plant infrastructure.
“Completing a first of its kind energy facility ahead of schedule and under budget is rare,” stated Dan Sutton, Chief Executive Officer of Syntholene. “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 Demonstration Facility has been designed to demonstrate potential cost and energy efficiencies of integrating geothermal heat with high-temperature electrolysis for the production of low-cost hydrogen, the principal feedstock required for synthetic fuel production. The company believes that this approach has the potential to significantly reduce required electricity consumption relative to conventional electrolysis pathways, by replacing a portion of the required electrical energy input with geothermal heat.
The objective is to deliver the world’s first truly high-performance, low-cost, and carbon-neutral synthetic fuel at an industrial scale, unlocking the potential to produce clean synthetic fuel at lower cost than fossil fuels, for the first time.
Testing at the Demonstration Facility is intended to validate continuous operational integration between geothermal heat infrastructure, SOEC hydrogen production, thermal energy recovery systems, and supporting balance-of-plant equipment. Data generated from the Demonstration Facility will inform future engineering optimization, technoeconomic analysis, commercial project development, strategic partnerships, and project financing initiatives.
“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,” further explained Sutton.
Source: Syntholene Energy
