About Us
ThermoPhys is a technology company founded by researchers and senior process engineers from one of the world’s leading research environments in thermodynamics, transport properties and process simulation. Our core technology builds on more than 15 years of research and development in Trondheim, with roots at NTNU and SINTEF. We have entered the commercialization phase, and the first paying customers are now using our software to solve their challenges.
Why we started
When we founded ThermoPhys in Trondheim, Norway, in 2024, one of the main motivations was to close a gap we had been watching from the sideline for years: advances in thermodynamics and process modeling took decades to reach industry. The most advanced and accurate models were described as too slow and unstable to be useful in process simulation. We saw that this resulted in expensive overdesign and slow innovation in emerging technologies such as CCS and hydrogen.
Another motivation was the lack of modern and collaborative features in established process simulators. The legacy software that we used felt a little bit like the DOS game called “Winter Games” from the 1980s. The workflow was inefficient, and not well suited to ensure safe solutions or to stimulate innovation. We didn’t feel that this combination justified the very high licensing cost.
But AI changed everything
As we started building our cloud-based process simulator in 2024, AI entered the scene. That opened up a completely new possibility, and we started building around it. The architecture and design of our software have been developed so that the underlying models, calculations and workflows can be easily accessed by AI, and can scale as AI gets better. And it gets better very, very fast.
This has already changed what we can do with the software. We have gained capabilities that we did not originally plan for, simply because we built the platform around AI rather than trying to add AI to an existing process simulator. Some engineering workflows are now more than 1000x faster than before. These benefits would have been impossible to take advantage of with a decades old software architecture and technical debt from the 1980s, so we founded ThermoPhys at the exact right time.
Why we are unique
There are very few people in the world with world leading expertise in thermophysical properties and calculations. We happen to have brought several of them together at ThermoPhys.
Why does this matter when building the next generation process simulation platform?
Because when a difficult process simulation fails, the problem is nearly always in the thermodynamic routines. We know that from hands-on experience. And if those routines were developed by somebody else, which is usually the case, who do you call when the simulation does not work?
It is also a matter of computational speed. Since we started in 2024, we have sped-up some of our most accurate thermodynamic models by more than 1000 times, while making them super robust and predictable.
Our bottom-up and careful approach where accuracy and robustness are essential, means that not only can you trust the answer, but also the AI that builds the process for you, and checks that its safe.
Bringing new products to market
It doesn’t help to have the most accurate thermodynamics, lightning-fast solvers and advanced capabilities if nobody understands how to use them.
We want TP-Process to be radically easier to use than traditional process simulators. Our concrete goal is that an undergraduate student, with no background in process engineering, should be able to set up an advanced process simulation within one hour. This is a goal we are now putting to the test. What makes process design much easier in TP-Process is 1) a simple and intuitive user interface, 2) an AI solution that helps the user, 3) interactive tutorials and 4) a large number of process templates to start from.
In addition to making our products easy to use, accessible and robust, we are working closely with our first pilot customers in Norway and Europe to understand their needs and how we can best help them solve their engineering problems. Alongside developing the software, we have also strengthened our commercial expertise and are now building the commercial and customer support capabilities needed to serve a growing customer base.
Partnering with ThermoPhys
We are looking for partners who want to:
- Use TP-Process in their group or organization to develop new industrial processes and improve existing ones.
- Access our backend through TP-API to provide accurate thermophysical properties to their own software, or use our numerical calculation engine in industrial plants.
- Develop new technology together with us through funded projects, including new thermodynamic models, process simulation capabilities and industrial applications.
We believe the best partnerships create lasting value for both parties.
Meet the ThermoPhys team
Dr. Øivind Wilhelmsen
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Dr. Øivind Wilhelmsen is the co-founder and CEO of ThermoPhys. After decades of seeing advances in thermodynamics never reach those who needed them, he co-founded ThermoPhys to change that. He is passionate about building products, working with customers, and commercializing advanced research. He is also a professor at NTNU, where he leads the thermodynamics research group. He has received several national and international research awards and co-authored more than 100 scientific articles and two books.
Dr. Morten Hammer
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Dr. Morten Hammer leads technology development at ThermoPhys. He is also an adjunct professor at NTNU. With a background at SINTEF Energy, experience developing the OLGA flow assurance software and the dynamic process simulator D-SPICE, he has extensive expertise in thermodynamics and process engineering. His combination of scientific expertise and hands-on experience developing industrial software is a key strength in bringing our technology to market.
Liv-Turid Nergård
Product Developer and Senior Process Engineer
Liv-Turid Nergård is a Product Developer and Senior Process Engineer at ThermoPhys. She has extensive experience in process engineering and simulation of industrial plants from Aker Solutions, Kvaerner and other engineering companies. She has also worked with process safety at Safetec. Her role at ThermoPhys is to ensure that the software is user-friendly and supports realistic engineering workflows.
Dr. Ailo Aasen
Chief Developer
Ailo is the Chief Developer at ThermoPhys and the principal architect behind the proprietary numerical algorithms that make TP-Process exceptionally fast and robust. He has a rare ability to turn complex mathematics and thermodynamics into efficient, reliable software.
He placed among the top five in both the Norwegian Mathematics and Physics Olympiads (2009), received the Stubban Prize for promising young mathematicians at NTNU (2014), and earned the EFCE Excellence Award in Thermodynamics and Transport Properties for his PhD (2021). He also has a decade of experience as a research scientist at SINTEF Energy, working on CCS, ammonia and hydrogen technologies.
Kathrine A. Skjølsvik
Chair of the board
Kathrine Skjølsvik is Chair of the Board of ThermoPhys. She holds an MSc. in Neuroscience from NTNU and has a multidisciplinary background spanning natural sciences, psychology and management. She contributes to the company’s governance and organizational development as ThermoPhys moves from research and technology development into commercialization.
She is also involved in education, teaching sustainability and related subjects. Her interdisciplinary background complements the strong technical expertise of the ThermoPhys team.
Vegard Jervell
Developer
Vegard Jervell is a Developer at ThermoPhys with a passion for product development, taking ideas all the way from fundamental physics and numerical algorithms to the user experience. He is particularly focused on making TP-Process intuitive for new users, while providing the advanced capabilities and flexibility demanded by experts.
Vegard specializes in complex numerical algorithms and modeling of transport properties, including viscosity, thermal conductivity and diffusion, with particular expertise in hydrogen and CO2-rich systems. He is a rising star in the fields of equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
Knut Erik Spilling
Senior Commercial Advisor
Knut Erik Spilling is a Commercial and Business Development Advisor at ThermoPhys, bringing more than 35 years of experience from the energy industry. He has held senior positions at Fantoft, SPT Group, Schlumberger (SLB), OneSubsea and Billington Process Technology, with extensive experience in sales, business development and commercialization of engineering software and digital solutions.
At ThermoPhys, he helps develop the sales strategy, customer relationships and recurring software license business, while supporting industrial partnerships and specialized engineering services. He works with ThermoPhys part-time through his independent consultancy, SpillingAdvisory.
Odd Cappelen
Technology Advisor
Odd Cappelen is a Technology Advisor at ThermoPhys. He currently works as a Senior Consultant at Minus 1 and previously co-founded Geniess, where he served as CTO and led the development of a SaaS platform and analytical tools for the energy industry.
Odd has extensive experience in software engineering, cloud platforms, data engineering and machine learning. Odd has been involved in the development of TP-Process from the very beginning, helping to bridge advanced simulation technology with an intuitive user experience. He contributes with expertise in software architecture, product development and building reliable cloud-based software for industrial customers.