Air Products and Chemicals Inc., the world’s biggest hydrogen producer, plans to create the longest hydrogen pipeline network by building a 180-mile (290-kilometer) connector between pipelines in Louisiana and Texas.
The connector will unite output from more than 20 plants capable of supplying more than 1 billion cubic feet (28.3 million cubic meters) of hydrogen a day to oil refiners and chemical makers from the Houston Ship Channel to New Orleans, Air Products said today in a statement. The network will be 600 miles long when completed in mid-2012.
Chief Executive Officer John McGlade is expanding hydrogen production as he tries to make Air Products the largest U.S. industrial gas company with a $5.5 billion hostile takeover bid for packaged-gas distributor Airgas Inc. Hydrogen sales are rising as clean-air regulations increase sales to oil refiners that use the gas to make cleaner-burning low-sulfur fuels.
“Air Products’ investment in this pipeline extension demonstrates our hydrogen market leadership and confidence in our Gulf Coast growth opportunities,” Steve Jones, general manager of tonnage gases, said in the statement.
The company is in permitting discussions with regulators in advance of an application, said Art George, a spokesman. Several pipeline routes are being evaluated, he said. The Allentown, Pennsylvania-based company isn’t disclosing financial details, he said.
Air Products also supplies hydrogen through pipelines in California, the Netherlands, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta, the company said on its website.
Hydrogen also is used in the manufacture of semiconductors, window glass and hydrogenated fats and oils such as margarine.
Praxair Inc. is currently the largest producer of industrial gases in the Americas.‹
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