Currently in the feasibility phase, the initiative began in 2021 after Vattenfall, SAS, LanzaTech and Shell signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore the production of SAFs on a large scale in the Forsmark Region.

H2 View understands that Vattenfall will no longer take up a €80.2m ($86.8m) EU Innovation Fund grant for the project. Additionally, LanzaTech stepped away from the project after the initial strategy to use gas fermentation and alcohol-to-jet for the project location shifted to Shell’s Fischer-Tropsch technology in 2023. However, SAS is still expected to be onboard as a potential off-taker.

Speaking to H2 View, a Vattenfall representative said, “Vattenfall continues the active search for new partners to join potential industry decarbonisation developments in the Forsmark Region.

“The HySkies project can make a restart pending the ongoing active search for potential new industrial partners to join Vattenfall in their ambitions or Shell coming back in at a later stage.

“Right now, it is too early to comment on potential next steps of the project or even potential new or broader ambitions and/or other potential partners.”

After HySkies was selected for the EU grant in 2023, it planned to produce around 82,000 tonnes per year of e-SAF using hydrogen from a 200MW electrolyser plant, biogenic CO2 captured from a waste-to-energy plant and sustainable ethanol.

Original plans were to begin operations in March 2027, with capital costs reportedly close to €780m ($844m).

Earlier this year (2024), Vattenfall cancelled its Hydrogen Turbine 1 (HTI) production project located off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Read more: Vattenfall drops offshore hydrogen production plans a year ahead of operations

Despite operations planned for 2025, an electrolyser was never connected to an offshore wind turbine to produce hydrogen. A company representative told H2 View it shifted its focus away from production as it wasn’t an “efficient use of resources.”