ALLENTOWN, PA (December 6, 1993) -- Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. has signed a supply agreement with Shell Oil Company for the design, engineering and construction of an onsite steam reforming plant for the supply of hydrogen to Shell's Martinez, California refinery. Air Products will own and operate the plant under a long-term supply contract, assuming all operating and maintenance responsibilities with specific performance guarantees. The plant will provide approximately 90 million standard cubic feet per day (SCFD) of hydrogen for Shell's Clean Fuels Projects. Earlier this year, Air Products announced it will own and operate a 25 million SCFD hydrogen plant currently under construction at Tosco Corporation's Avon, California refinery. The two new plants represent a capital investment by Air Products in excess of $100 million.

The Shell hydrogen plant will combine the engineering expertise of Air Products and Kinetics Technology International Corporation (KTI) under their recently formed alliance, with KTI providing the hydrogen plant technology and Air Products supplying the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) cleanup and control systems. KTI will execute the project for Air Products on a turnkey basis. Construction is expected to commence in early 1994, with an anticipated onstream date of August 1995.

Air Products' extensive hydrogen experience includes the operation of 26 steam methane reforming (SMR) plants, 13 offgas hydrogen facilities, 6 hydrogen liquifiers, and three major hydrogen and carbon monoxide (HYCO) pipeline systems, making it the world's largest supplier of hydrogen. As a result, Air Products offers a broad line of hydrogen supply options including gaseous and liquid merchant hydrogen, pipeline supply and dedicated onsite plants. The company is one of the world's leading suppliers of industrial gases, chemicals, process equipment, and environmental and energy systems, with more than 14,000 employees and annual sales of over $3 billion.

KTI is the leading supplier of hydrogen production facilities to the U. S. refining industry. In the last five years, the company has built 14 hydrogen plants i n the United States, each designed to produce more than 10 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen. KTI employs more than 250 employees in the United States, and is a subsidiary of Mannesmann AG, a $16 billion German industrial corporation.

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