Investor Insight

Syntholene offers investors exposure to a first‑of‑its‑kind, publicly traded pure‑play synthetic fuel company positioned to disrupt a multi‑trillion‑dollar liquid fuels market with a scalable pathway to cost‑competitive, carbon‑negative aviation fuel.

Overview

Syntholene Energy (TSXV:ESAF,FSE:3DD0) is a next-generation clean energy company focused on producing high-performance, carbon-negative, low-cost synthetic liquid fuels, with aviation as its initial target market. Syntholene is actively commercializing its novel Hybrid Thermal Production System for low-cost clean fuel synthesis. The target output is ultrapure synthetic jet fuel (eSAF), manufactured at 70 percent lower cost than the nearest competing technology today. The company’s mission is to deliver the world’s first truly high-performance, low-cost, and carbon-neutral eFuel at an industrial scale, unlocking the potential to produce clean synthetic fuel at lower cost than fossil fuels, for the first time.

Synthetic fuels offer a drop-in solution for the aviation industry seeking to reduce emissions without modifying aircraft or infrastructure, addressing one of the most pressing challenges in global decarbonization.

The company is operating against the backdrop of a large and rapidly expanding aviation fuel market. The global aviation fuel market was valued at approximately US$391 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to nearly US$820 billion by 2032, while the sustainable aviation fuel segment is expected to expand from just over US$2 billion in 2025 to more than US$25 billion by 2030. This growth is being driven by regulatory mandates, airline decarbonization commitments, and limited near-term alternatives for long-haul flight, making aviation one of the most attractive early markets for synthetic fuels.

Beyond aviation, the global eFuel market is projected to grow rapidly over the coming decade, from US$8.89 billion in 2024 to more than US$215 billion by 2032, supported by increasing demand for low-emissions liquid fuels across shipping, industrial energy, and other hard-to-electrify applications that rely on existing combustion infrastructure. While aviation is Syntholene’s initial commercial focus, the company’s synthetic fuel platform is designed for application across a wide range of liquid fuel markets, allowing it to leverage a substantially larger total addressable market over time. These dynamics create a multi-layered growth opportunity, with aviation serving as a high-value entry point into a much broader global eFuel market.

Syntholene is progressing its Hybrid Thermal Production System from laboratory-scale validation toward a real-world demonstration facility in Iceland, leveraging abundant geothermal resources and long-term expansion potential.

The company’s leadership team brings experience across advanced energy, large-scale industrial deployment, and climate-tech commercialization, positioning the company to scale modular production facilities globally as regulatory and market demand intensifies.

Key Solution

Syntholene’s core offering is synthetic fuel (eFuel) produced through a proprietary, integrated production pathway designed to deliver high performance at materially lower cost than conventional power-to-liquid approaches. Synthetic aviation fuels are produced from renewable electricity, green hydrogen and captured carbon, and can deliver up to 90 percent lower lifecycle emissions while remaining fully compatible with existing aircraft and fueling infrastructure.

Syntholene’s Thermal Hybrid Production System integrates high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis with industrially proven fuel synthesis reactors. By introducing low-cost thermal energy at critical stages of the process, the system significantly reduces electricity consumption, which is the primary cost driver for most eFuel producers. This approach underpins the company’s targeted 70 percent cost advantage versus competing technologies and supports a credible pathway toward cost parity — and potentially superiority — relative to fossil fuels at scale.

From a market perspective, the company is targeting a sector supported by strong regulatory tailwinds. In Europe, the ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation mandates rising sustainable aviation fuel blending requirements beginning in 2025 and increasing through 2050, while complementary subsidies of up to €6 per liter further incentivize adoption.

Syntholene’s development plans are centered on delivering a demonstration facility by the end of 2026, followed by commercial facilities capable of scaling from tens to hundreds of megawatts as demand accelerates. Over time, Syntholene aims to evolve from carbon‑neutral fuel production to carbon‑negative fuels, actively removing more CO₂ from the atmosphere than is emitted when the fuel is consumed.

Management Team

Dan Sutton – Chief Executive Officer

Dan Sutton has spent the last 15 years as a founder and executive leader in sustainable infrastructure deployment and operations. He was the founder and CEO of Tantalus Labs, where he and his team designed, built and operated its first-of-a-kind production facility SUNLAB, reducing energy demand by 90 percent per square foot relative to historic incumbents. He scaled his team to 150 employees, grew revenue from 0 to $20 million annually, and delivered leading revenue-per-employee sector-wide. Sutton has a strong track record in executive leadership, government relations, public relations and project management. He prides himself on building cultures that foster intellect, drive and relentless resourcefulness.

Steve Oldham – Director

Steve Oldham is a globally recognized leader in carbon management and climate‑tech commercialization. He is the former CEO of Carbon Engineering, where he helped establish direct air capture as a viable industry and led the company through its sale to Occidental Petroleum at a $1.6 billion valuation. He is also CEO of Captura and brings decades of experience scaling complex, capital‑intensive clean energy technologies.

Canon Bryan – Director

Canon Bryan is a founder and company builder with more than 25 years of experience in advanced energy and resource companies. He co-founded Terrestrial Energy (developer of Generation IV nuclear power), Uranium Energy (NYSE:UEC), and NioCorp (NASDAQ:NB), and has contracted with public and private companies across finance, accounting, planning and corporate development. Bryan’s background spans full-cycle accounting, economic modelling and strategic leadership in complex industrial sectors.

John Kutsch – Chief Engineer

As Syntholene’s chief engineer, John Kutsch leads the integration of multiple discrete systems into a unified, optimized and scalable infrastructure for economic and rapid construction and operation. He brings over 30 years of experience in systems design and implementation across large industrial companies, including work on energy, chemical processing and advanced reactor designs.

Jack Williams – Head Engineer

Jack Williams is head engineer at Syntholene. He has seven years of experience in high-temperature and pressure reactors, pilot-scale rig design and execution. As a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and IChemE, his work focused on reactor design for synthetic fuel production and CO₂ capture, including developing groundbreaking electrolysis and catalytic reactor technologies.

Grant Tanaka – Chief Financial Officer

Grant Tanaka is Syntholene’s CFO with more than 15 years of senior financial leadership experience across the global natural resources sector. His experience includes directing finance operations for major mining companies and holding senior finance roles at Teck Resources, New Gold and Copper Mountain Mining. Tanaka combines financial discipline with operational performance management and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration. He is also a chartered professional accountant.

Anna Pagliaro – Director

Anna Pagliaro is a senior commercial and risk management executive with extensive experience in the energy and mining sectors. She currently serves as director, commercial and risk at Vizsla Silver, leading strategic negotiations, risk mitigation and governance for complex international projects. Pagliaro’s prior roles include leadership positions at Ausenco, NexGen Energy and Integra Gold, and she holds legal and business credentials that support strategic value creation and operational excellence.

Syntholene Energy (TSXV:ESAF,FSE:3DD0) is a next-generation clean energy company developing high-performance, carbon-negative synthetic liquid fuels, with aviation as its initial target market. The company is commercializing its proprietary Hybrid Thermal Production System, a breakthrough technology designed to enable low-cost, large-scale production of ultrapure synthetic jet fuel (eSAF).

Syntholene targets production costs up to 70 percent lower than the nearest competing technologies, positioning its fuel to be cost-competitive with — and ultimately cheaper than — conventional fossil fuels. With a mission to deliver the world’s first truly high-performance, low-cost, and carbon-neutral eFuel at industrial scale, Syntholene aims to unlock a new era of affordable, sustainable aviation and clean energy solutions

Syntholene is progressing its Hybrid Thermal Production System from laboratory-scale validation toward a real-world demonstration facility in Iceland, leveraging abundant geothermal resources and long-term expansion potential.

Company Highlights

• Proprietary Production Technology – Synthetic fuel (eFuel) produced through a fully integrated, proprietary pathway designed for superior performance and materially lower cost than conventional power-to-liquid methods
• Low-Cost, High-Performance Fuel – Engineered to deliver high energy efficiency while significantly reducing production costs
• Sustainable Feedstocks – Manufactured using renewable electricity, green hydrogen, and captured carbon
• Ultra-Low Emissions – Delivers up to 90 percent lower lifecycle emissions compared to conventional jet fuel
• Drop-In Compatibility – Fully compatible with existing aircraft engines and global fueling infrastructure
• Scalable Clean Energy Solution – Designed for industrial-scale deployment to accelerate the transition to sustainable aviation fuel

This Syntholene Energy profile is part of a paid investor education campaign.*

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Solar panel makers bypassing silver

China dominates the global solar PV industry, representing more than 80 percent of worldwide manufacturing capacity across the supply chain, including polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules.

In early January, Bloomberg reported that starting in Q2, LONGi Green Energy is planning to start mass producing solar cells using base metals instead of silver in an effort to reduce costs.

Di Giacomo believes that because LONGi Green Energy is one of the solar industry’s technological leaders, its move away from silver marks a significant turning point for the sector.

Bloomberg notes that the company has joined the ranks of other Chinese solar manufacturers looking to sidestep silver’s price volatility. In December, JinkoSolar Holding (NYSE:JKS), which is headquartered in China, but listed in the US, said it was looking to roll out large-scale production of solar panels using base metals. Additionally, smaller firm Shanghai Aiko Solar Energy (SHA:600732) is producing 6.5 gigawatt solar cells without silver.

“Other major manufacturers, such as JinkoSolar and AIKO Solar, are also exploring silver-free technologies or solutions that minimize the use of this metal,” said Di Giacomo. “The convergence of efforts among leading players suggests this is not an isolated trend, but rather a structural shift in how solar panels are designed and manufactured.”

Is copper a viable alternative to silver?

Copper is the prized favorite among the base metals for swapping out silver.

While both metals have seen unprecedented price rallies on the back rising industrial demand from clean technologies and artificial intelligence, silver maintains an enormous premium over copper. Currency, the price of a troy ounce of silver is trading at about 22,000 percent higher than a troy ounce of copper.

“Although its conductivity is slightly lower, copper is far more abundant, cheaper and supported by a more diversified supply chain,” stated Di Giacomo. “These characteristics make it an attractive option for an industry seeking to scale production without exposure to bottlenecks in critical raw materials.”

The red metal may be a great electrical conductor, but it doesn’t match silver’s capabilities. There’s also the tendency for copper to oxidize and degrade, testing the long-term viability and reliability of copper-based solar components. For those reasons, subbing in copper presents technical challenges for PV makers.

One area of concern for replacing silver with copper is the high temperatures needed in the fabricating process for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells, the technology currently dominating the solar panel industry.

This might not be as big an issue for LONGi Green Energy, which manufactures back-contact (BC) cells. The technical processes for adapting copper to this new type of solar cell architecture is much simpler compared to TOPCon cells.

“New generations of copper-metallized cells are achieving efficiency levels increasingly close to those of traditional silver-based models,” said Di Giacomo. “In some cases, improvements are even being observed in mechanical strength and module durability, key factors for long-term solar installations and operation under demanding environmental conditions.”

BC cells have also been shown to generate more power from the same amount of sunlight compared to TOPCon cells. A white paper from renewable energy advisory company Rinnovabili states that field data indicates that BC modules are capable of producing up to 11 percent more energy over their lifetime compared to TOPCon technology.

How will substitution impact silver?

In a November 2025 report, the Silver Institute reported that industrial silver demand is projected to drop by 2 percent in 2025 to 665 million ounces. One of the contributing factors in the decline is an approximate 5 percent decrease in silver demand from the solar industry, even though the number of global PV installations set a new record high for the year. This is “due to a sharp drop in the amount of silver used in each module,” according to the firm.

“A sustained reduction in solar sector silver demand could alter market dynamics,” warned Di Giacomo.

However, at this point it’s too early to tell. For one, TOPCon technology is expected to account for 70 percent of the market in 2026. The cost of manufacturing BC cells is not expected to reach parity with TOPCon cells until the end of the decade, said Molly Morgan, senior research analyst at CRU Group, as reported by pv magazine.

“That’s why we believe we might see a coexistence of the two technologies in the 2028 to 2030 timeframe,” she said.

Meeting demand through supply

‘Primary production—mining—remains the irreplaceable foundation of copper supply,’ said Global Head of Critical Minerals and Energy Transition Consulting at S&P Global Energy Eleonor Kramarz.

‘Bridging the impending supply gap depends not only on geology, engineering, and logistics and investment, but also on governance and policies. That translates into timeliness in permitting and consultation, a time clock on litigation and stability in governance and regulation. The alternative is uncertainty, and uncertainty comes at a hefty cost.’

The report added that output from existing mines will keep declining without significant new investment.

Recycling is regarded as the “secondary supply,” but however provides at best only about a third of the total supply by 2040.

Processing also remains critical in this scenario. Smelting and refining capacity is still concentrated in China, accounting for about 40 to 50 percent total capacity or 12 of the 29 million metric tons to be specific.

“(This) geographic concentration amplifies systemic risks and exposes the supply chain to geopolitical shocks.”

“While recycling could possibly meet up to a quarter of total demand by 2040, it cannot close the gap – primary mined supply remains essential,” the report concluded.

Copper and electrification

S&P Global wrote that copper also plays a huge role in meeting the growing requirements of electrification and technologies such as AI and data centers.

It noted that while AI is not creating the largest of copper demand, its requirements highlight the need for expanded electricity supply.

Still, there is a need to hold space for how AI will affect the generation of industrial, commercial, creative and even personal applications that require more electricity.

For data centers, the electricity demand in the US could rise from the current 5 percent to 14 percent by 2030.

“Data centers are electricity-intensive, and their proliferation is driving massive investments in both direct copper use (for power delivery, cooling, and IT infrastructure) and in the electric grid infrastructure that supports them.”

The report illustrated that to meet the global power demand of 2040, the world will need to build the equivalent of roughly 330 Hoover Dams, or over 650 one-gigawatt nuclear reactors each year between now and then.

“Copper is the material enabling this massive growth in power demand – unlocking the age of AI and the electrified future of which it is characteristic.”

A report by Benchmark on annual EV sales revealed that 20.7 million units were sold in 2025, but that the same growth rate of 20 percent “is not expected” to be the same in 2026.

Noting, “manufacturers (will) focus their efforts on the deadline year, 2027.’

In terms of overall demand for copper and how it relates to EVs, S&P Global said that demand for ICE vehicles declines due to the growing share of EVs.

“Construction and machinery continue to be the largest contributors to core economic demand.”

Australia’s copper developments

As a nation, Australia is making moves that relate to copper in terms of demand and investment.

Its Critical Minerals Strategy and Resource Industry Growth Initiative, along with its partnership with Japan, prioritize joint investment and regulatory simplification.

Using public finance bodies such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and JOGMEC, Japan is backing Australian projects to secure long-term access to critical minerals, including copper.

Firms such as Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC,OTCQX:LYSDY) and their projects also play a role, assisting in securing stable supplies of rare earths, lithium and copper.

In 2024 and 2025, cooperation under the Japan–Australia Critical Minerals Partnership expanded further, with new processing and infrastructure initiatives announced in Western Australia.

Large-scale infrastructure projects are also adding to future copper demand. One high-profile example is the proposed AAPowerLink subsea cable project, which would connect Australia to Singapore and Indonesia.

If developed as planned, the project could consume tens of thousands of tonnes of copper, highlighting how Australia’s export-focused energy and infrastructure strategy is translating into material demand growth.

Together, these developments underscore how government-backed partnerships and major infrastructure investments are reinforcing Australia’s role as a reliable copper supplier, while creating longer-term opportunities for investors across the copper value chain.

Addressing the basics

The demand for copper arises from the fact that it is essential for the generation, transmission and use of electricity.

The irony is that the metal which enables electrification is having a hard time catching up to the accelerating pace of electrification itself.

While S&P Global did not have policy recommendations, it implied that current policies may be slowing things down.

“Average copper mine takes 17 years from discovery to production, with much time spent on permitting, environmental reviews and community consultations.”

It cited that changing government terms, tariffs and regulatory frameworks are bringing uncertainty to the resource sector, slowing investment and project development.

The report also noted that while mining is the primary driver of supply, it is only a part of the picture. It’s also about what happens to copper when it leaves mines.

The conclusion is that the requirement is for multilateral cooperation and increased regional diversification.

“The future is not just copper-intensive, it is copper-enabled,” S&P Global concluded.

“As electrification and digital intelligence become defining characteristics of global development, copper is indeed an ever-more critical mineral, carrying the electric currents that are connecting, conducting, and catalyzing innovation and economic advance.”

Target rate probabilities for January Fed meeting.

Chart via CME Group.

Trump has frequently criticized Powell for not lowering rates quickly enough, and Powell’s replacement, who has not yet been announced, is widely expected to be more in line with Trump’s views.

“We see increased interference with the Fed as a key bullish wildcard for the precious metals in 2026,” Carsten Menke, head of next-generation research at Julius Baer Group, told Bloomberg. He noted that because silver is a smaller market than gold, it typically reacts “more strongly to such concerns.”

Silver price chart, January 6 to 14, 2026.

Silver and its sister metal gold tend to fare better when rates are lower, meaning rate cut expectations coupled with the investigation of Powell and the Fed have helped to stoke prices for the precious metals.

While silver is known for lagging behind gold before outperforming, it’s now ahead in terms of percentage gains — silver is up about nearly 200 percent year-over-year, while gold has risen around 72 percent.

The yellow metal also hit a new all-time high on Wednesday, peaking at US$4,641.40 per ounce.

In addition to rate-related factors, silver’s breakout this year has been driven by various other elements.

As a precious metal, it’s influenced by many of the same factors as gold, but its October price jump, which took it past the US$50 level, was also driven by a lack of liquidity in the London market.

While that issue appears to have resolved, silver remains in a multi-year supply deficit. Tariff concerns and silver’s new status as a critical mineral in the US have also provided support.

In addition to its appeal as a precious metal, silver’s industrial side shouldn’t be forgotten — according to the Silver Institute, the white metal’s ‘global silver industrial demand is poised to grow further as demand from vital technology sectors accelerates over the next five years. Sectors such as solar energy, automotive electric vehicles and their infrastructure, and data centers and artificial intelligence will drive industrial demand higher through 2030.’