The mechanical engineer’s foray into politics lasted until January 2022. Mid-May, the e-fuel development company appointed Herdan the managing director of HIF EMEA.President of the newly created business unit is Armin Schnettler, who previously worked at ABB, Siemens and Siemens Energy and was a research director at technical university RWTH Aachen for more than 18 years. From the office in Berlin out, the two gentlemen are to represent the American company in, now, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company HIF Global, in which Porsche has secured a 11.5 percent share, already has wholly owned subsidiaries in Chile, Australia and the USA.
César Norton, president and CEO of HIF Global, explained: “HIF EMEA, under the leadership of Armin Schnettler and Thorsten Herdan, will focus on providing carbon-neutral, (green) electricity-based synthetic fuels, also known as e-fuels, for the EMEA region, to accelerate decarbonization and improve the security of energy supply.” HIF stands for “Highly Innovative Fuels” based on hydrogen.
Thorsten Herdan said: “With HIF EMEA, we are preparing for the delivery of e-fuels to Europe in the course of 2022, after we have launched operations at the Haru Oni plant currently being built in Magallanes, Chile. The expansion of e-fuels into European, Middle Eastern and African markets will supply renewable energy to millions of existing vehicles, ships and aircraft, without requiring infrastructure changes.”
Herdan’s successor in the energy policy department of the Germany ministry for economics and climate protection is Christian Maaß, until then managing director of research institute Hamburg Institut.
