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Industrial gas co. to build $150M liquid hydrogen plant
Nov 26, 2018, 3:39pm EST

France-based Air Liquide, which has its U.S. headquarters in Houston, announced on Nov. 26 it plans to build a $150 million liquid hydrogen plant.

The plant will be in the western U.S., according to the Nov. 26 press release, but an exact location hasn’t been announced yet. Construction is expected to begin in early 2019.

The project will be the first world-scale liquid hydrogen production unit dedicated to the hydrogen energy markets, per the release. It will provide hydrogen to FirstElement Fuel Inc.’s retail liquid hydrogen fueling stations in California, which has a growing market for hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles.

With a capacity of nearly 30 tons of hydrogen per day, the plant will be able to fuel 35,000 fuel-cell electric vehicles, per the release. California is expected to have 40,000 FCEVs by 2022, per Air Liquide. Additionally, the plant will “support other fuel cell vehicle and transportation markets in the region, such as material handling and forklifts and heavy duty trucks,” per the release.

Air Liquide also plans to invest in FirstElement Fuel, which also has received assistance from Toyota and Honda, per the release.

“This new investment in hydrogen production and our collaborative relationship with FirstElement Fuel further demonstrate our long-term commitment to the development of hydrogen energy for mobility and accelerate the deployment of new hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles — cars, trucks, buses — planned by automotive manufacturers like Toyota, Honda and other leading OEMs (original equipment manufacturers),” Michael Graff, executive vice president and executive committee member of L’Air Liquide SA and chairman and CEO of American Air Liquide Holdings Inc., said in the release. “We are convinced that hydrogen is an essential sustainable energy vector of the future and a cornerstone of the energy transition.”

Closer to home, Air Liquide is considering a $107 million project to construct an air separation unit in Matagorda County that would employ 10 people full time. Air Liquide would pay each of the 10 new employees at least $66,250 per year, according to a tax incentive application published by the Texas comptroller Nov. 6. At its peak in 2020, construction would employ 250 full time equivalent construction workers.
https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/11/26/industrial-gas-co-to-build-150m-liquid-hydrogen.html