On Earth Day’s 50th: Air Products Continues to Build a More Sustainable Future Through Technology
At Air Products (NYSE:APD), a global leader in industrial gases, sustainability is a core value. With a focus on serving energy, environmental and emerging markets, all of which are central to building a more sustainable future, the company’s industrial gases are critical to reducing emissions and increasing productivity across manufacturing. Air Products is also working to solve the world’s urgent energy and environmental needs through large-scale gasification, carbon capture, and hydrogen for mobility and energy transition.
“Absolutely nothing is more important at this time than solving the current COVID-19 crisis, which is the greatest global challenge we all face today. At the same time, we must continue to address very important sustainability issues which will not go away,” said Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman, President and CEO at Air Products. “We will always need to protect our environment, part of that is meeting the world’s need for clean sustainable energy, and we see ourselves at the heart that issue. We look forward to continuing to work with our employees, customers and partners to innovate and collectively build a better future.”
“Every year, Air Products develops and deploys technology for the world to meet energy and productivity needs. This includes work with businesses from energy to electronics, metals to manufacturing, and chemicals to construction – our gas products and technologies enable economic opportunities and foster healthy communities around the world,” said Simon Moore, Vice President, Investor Relations, Corporate Relations and Sustainability.
Below are some of Air Products’ projects developed in the past year and deployed to help meet global customers’ significant energy and productivity needs.
Capturing nearly one million tons of CO2 per year for beneficial use in Texas. In Port Arthur, Texas, Air Products operates the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) purification and capture project for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by an industrial gas company. Air Products designed, constructed and is operating the state-of-the-art system to capture CO2 from its steam methane reformers located at a refinery in Port Arthur. Since 2013, when it initiated onstream capture operations as part of a United States Department of Energy project, Air Products has captured over six million tons of CO2 at Port Arthur that has been put to beneficial use, supplied by a pipeline for EOR in the state.
Opened the U.S.’s largest fast-fill hydrogen bus fueling station. Located at the Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) bus depot in Santa Ana, California, the station is equipped with Air Products’ SmartFuel® hydrogen fueling technology, design, and equipment. OCTA’s current hydrogen fuel cell powered electric bus fleet is comprised of 10 buses, but the station is built for future growth with fueling capacity for up to 50 buses, which corresponds to fueling up to 1,500 kilograms (kg) of hydrogen in an eight-hour time period. The station can fuel transit buses with an average of 28 kg of hydrogen per bus in a time frame of 6-to-10 minutes per bus, while also providing back-to-back bus fueling for up to 30 buses and simultaneous fueling capability with multiple fueling lanes.
Providing certified, sustainable, renewable hydrogen in Europe. Air Products launched a pilot program to generate some of Europe’s first Guarantees of Origin (GO) for sustainable, renewable hydrogen produced in The Netherlands. The project is part of CertifHy, a European-wide initiative to produce low carbon and renewable hydrogen. The GOs will be for hydrogen produced at the Rotterdam chloralkaline electrolyser plants of Nouryon, which uses wind power as part of its energy mix. This renewable power is sourced from the completed Krammer and Bouwdokken windfarms in The Netherlands. Once produced, the hydrogen is conditioned by Air Products before taking it into its established pipeline in Rotterdam for commercial use.
The first hydrogen fueling station in Saudi Arabia. Air Products and Saudi Aramco have placed onstream the first hydrogen fueling station for hydrogen fuel cell powered electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia. The pilot program represents a first step in demonstrating oil-based hydrogen-powered systems within the Kingdom. Together the companies have established a pilot fleet of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles powered by high-purity compressed hydrogen.
Expanding clean energy supply through LNG technology. Air Products is providing two proprietary LNG heat exchangers for Mozambique LNG, Mozambique’s first onshore LNG project. Under the agreement, Air Products will provide two of its proprietary and world-leading coil wound main cryogenic heat exchangers (MCHE) for the project. The MCHEs will operate at the site as part of two separate LNG production trains designed to produce approximately 13 million tons per year of liquified natural gas from the Golfinho/Atum natural gas fields in Mozambique. Air Products is also involved in Coral South FLNG, Mozambique’s first offshore floating LNG project.
Providing Oxy-fuel combustion in South Korea to reduce emissions in glass production. Air Products is suppling its advanced oxy-fuel combustion system to Techpack Solutions to convert its furnace from air-fuel to oxy-fuel for enhanced sustainability and competitiveness. Oxy-fuel combustion technology is proven to bring multiple benefits, such as an over 80% reduction in NOx emissions, 10-35% in energy savings, about a 25% increase in productivity, and improved energy efficiency and glass quality.
Build and operate coal-to-syngas processing facilities in China. Air Products is currently constructing two coal-to-syngas processing facilities in China. Targeted onstream is 2021 for a multi-billion dollar project for Jiutai New Material Co. Ltd. in Hohhot, China. In Jiangsu Province, China, Air Products and Debang Xinghua Technology Co. are working on a joint venture facility in the Xuwei National Petrochemical Park with a 2023 onstream date. Countries and large companies around the world continue to focus on gasification to utilize the abundant natural resources they have to produce chemicals, transportation fuels and energy in a sustainable manner.
For more information on Air Products sustainability efforts visit airproducts.com/sustainability.
About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE:APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for nearly 80 years. Focused on serving energy, environment and emerging markets, the Company provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the global leader in the supply of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The Company develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world's largest industrial gas projects, including gasification projects that sustainably convert abundant natural resources into syngas for the production of high-value power, fuels and chemicals.
The Company had fiscal 2019 sales of $8.9 billion from operations in 50 countries and has a current market capitalization of about $50 billion. More than 17,000 passionate, talented and committed employees from diverse backgrounds are driven by Air Products’ higher purpose to create innovative solutions that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and address the challenges facing customers, communities, and the world. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.