Air Products to Set up Industrial Gases Facility at Huntsman's US Site

Air Products has broken ground at Huntsman’s site in Louisiana (USA) for industrial gases production plant to supply carbon monoxide and hydrogen to Huntsman.

Air Products will build, own and ope-rate the facility under a long-term agreement and the industrial gases and steam will be produced and supplied to Huntsman’s neighbouring Geismar operations. The new facility is to be commercially onstream in early 2020.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Corning Painter, executive vice president – Industrial Gases at Air Products, said, “We have supplied Huntsman with industrial gases at other facilities where they have operations and we are pleased to expand our relationship through this new supply supporting Huntsman at Geismar.”

Mr. Tony Hankins, President of Huntsman Polyurethanes said, “As a business, we are focused on rapidly building our downstream footprint and capabilities. This strategic shift can only be achieved with a strong upstream asset position at our Geismar MDI facility. We look forward to the successful commissioning of the Air Products plant in early 2020.”

The new facility, to be located on land leased from Huntsman, will produce approximately 6.5 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of CO, 50-mmscfd of hydrogen, and up to 50,000 pounds per hour of steam. There is also the ability for the facility to be expanded to increase CO in the future to support additional growth.

Beyond supply to Huntsman’s production facility in Geismar, Air Products’ new plant will also be connected to its Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline and network system (GCP). Dedicated in 2012, the 600-mile pipeline span is the world’s largest hydrogen plant and pipeline network system. The GCP stretches from the Houston Ship Channel in Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana, and supplies customers with over 1.4 billion feet of hydrogen per day from 22 hydrogen production facilities.

“We recently announced increased hydrogen capacity to the Gulf Coast pipeline for customers with an onstream project in Texas, and now we will again have added enhanced and reliable hydrogen supply to the pipeline network when this Geismar facility is placed onstream,” informed Mr. Painter.

Texas plant onstream

In another development, Air Products also announced that it has increased the supply capacity of its Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline supply network by approximately 40 million standard cubic feet per day. The additional product supply results from Air Products’ hydrogen production facility in Mont Belvieu, Texas, which is onstream and processing an additional supply of hydrogen-rich off-gas from a propane dehydrogenation plant operated by Enterprise Products Operating LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners L.P.

“Air Products continually looks for additional sources of hydrogen to add product supply capacity to our well-established pipeline network system along the Gulf Coast. We had an existing relationship with Enterprise and are pleased to enhance and expand that relationship by processing additional levels of hydrogen-rich off-gas,” said Ms. Marie Ffolkes, President, Industrial Gases Americas at Air Products.

The Mont Belvieu hydrogen facility uses Air Products’ pressure swing adsorption technology, which is already in place at numerous other locations around the world. The increased amounts of off-gas processing and hydrogen production capability, under a new long-term agreement, builds on Air Products’ successful processing of off-gas from Enterprise at the same complex since 1994.

Hydrogen is widely used in petroleum refining processes to remove impurities found in crude oil such as sulphur, olefins and aromatics to meet product fuels specifications. Removing these components allows gasoline and diesel to burn cleaner and thus makes hydrogen a critical component in the production of cleaner fuels needed by modern, efficient internal combustion engines.