Licella signs amended joint-development agreement with Quadrise

Licella announced Aug. 4 an amendment to the joint-development agreement (JDA) with Quadrise, building on the collaboration announced by the companies in March 2025.

Quadrise develops and supplies lower-cost, lower-emission alternative fuels and biofuels for the shipping and heavy-industry sectors.

Licella’s proprietary Cat-HTR™ hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) technology converts abundant biomass residues and biowastes, including forestry and agricultural residues, into high-quality, sustainable bio-oil.

This bio-oil can be further upgraded, blended or refined into low-carbon liquid fuels.

HTL is globally recognized as one of the most promising pathways for producing sustainable fuels for hard-to-abate sectors such as shipping, with leading organizations, including the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping, highlighting its ability to deliver low-carbon bio-oils at the scale required by the maritime industry.

Under the JDA entered into in March 2025, Quadrise and Licella have been collaborating to advance the use of Licella’s bio-oil as a potential cost-effective feedstock for Quadrise’s bioMSAR™ and bioMSAR Zero™ fuels.

Pursuant to the JDA, laboratory testing has been undertaken in Australia and the U.K., enabling the parties to develop a deeper understanding of the technological advancements required to supply sustainable HTL-derived bio-oils to the maritime sector.

As a result, and prior to diesel-engine testing, the amended JDA now sets out a nonbinding but more targeted development program, including an updated timetable for the joint testing of the parties’ respective fuel technologies.

Licella will contribute its expertise in scalable HTL bio-oil production, while Quadrise will provide maritime-fuel expertise and market access.

Subject to the successful completion of final laboratory testing on refined Licella HTL bio-oils in the second half of this year, the parties plan to commence initial marine diesel-engine pilot testing.

Following this, Quadrise and Licella intend to undertake the larger-scale third-party engine testing required to progress toward commercial vessel trials.

“The combination of Quadrise emulsion technology and the abundant feedstocks offered by Licella’s HTL technology offers an increasingly promising pathway to scalability of bioMSAR™ for the maritime industry, and a potential way of mitigating the price pressures with other biofeedstocks,” said Quadrise CEO Peter Borup.

Licella CEO Len Humphreys added, “The shipping industry needs sustainable fuel solutions that can truly scale, and that is exactly what Licella’s Cat-HTR™ technology delivers—abundant, low-cost feedstocks to meet the scale of the challenge. Our partnership with Quadrise brings together two highly complementary technologies, and with Quadrise’s maritime-market expertise and fuel experience we see a compelling opportunity to accelerate the delivery of scalable, cost-competitive low-carbon marine fuels. This amended agreement reflects the strength of our relationship and our shared confidence in the pathway ahead, and we look forward to advancing testing and commercialization together.”