When is an engineer better than an alchemist? When he discovers how to transform natural gas and coal into eco-friendly liquids, known as synfuels.
Using his 'white magic,' Ketil Hanssen has unleashed fuels that are purer, burn cleaner, and have a lower carbon footprint because they take less capacity to transport.
He began forging his unique path from an early age. When faced with boring math textbooks in fifth grade he asked for more interesting ones, which he promptly received, along with extra tests to make sure he got it. At NTNU Ketil studied chemical engineering, because he enjoyed using his hands as well as his brain.
After being awarded his PhD, his flair for transforming elements landed him a post-doctorate position at Texas A&M. Fortunately, his wife was hired at the same time to teach chemical engineering, so they could talk late into the night about changing the way things work.
When his friends went hiking, Ketil went skydiving. Maybe that extreme point of view is where some of his earth-shattering ideas were hatched. When he applied to DNV eight years ago, his independent streak came out when he wrote a humorous application.
Like his hero in Catcher in the Rye, Ketil is always true to himself, and figures people will take him or leave him. DNV took him and his career has helped launch one technological innovation after another. Ketil collaborated on new subsea equipment tandards that have been adopted by industry leaders worldwide.
Moreover, he is working on a host of technological innovations to use cleaner burning liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas instead of oil and coal while reducing the transportation footprint. But with new technologies comes uncertainty. He tries to lower the risk of innovation by making the solutions "watertight" – just like the sand-from-liquid separator he is working on.
He helps companies feel safer in adopting more environmentally friendly technologies such as placing equipment on the subsea floor – moving away from the hazards and expense of concrete rigs, to a safer, cheaper, and more ecologically sound alternative.
And he doesn’t even need a magic wand to pull it all off. Shazzam.