California: Air Liquide starts up hydrogen unit for cleaner fuels

Air Liquide continues to grow its hydrogen business in the U.S. to reliably supply refiners with this essential gas used to convert heavy crude oil into diesel, jet fuel and gasoline and to further remove sulphur from these products. These low sulphur transportation fuels meet the most stringent worldwide environmental regulations.

Air Liquide’s latest world scale hydrogen production unit began operations on September 29, 2009, on the site of ConocoPhillips’ San Francisco refinery in Rodeo, California, on the north eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay.

The 120 mmscfd (142,000 Nm3/h) steam methane reformer (SMR), owned and operated by Air Liquide Large Industries U.S L.P, is one of the largest hydrogen units in operation in the United States.

Air Liquide has more than doubled its U.S. production capacity of hydrogen in the last five years. With this unit in production, Air Liquide now operates hydrogen units at 12 sites in the U.S. in California, Washington, Texas and Louisiana, with a total hydrogen capacity in excess of 500 mmscfd (592,000 Nm3/h).

Michael J. Graff, member of Air Liquide Group’s Executive Committee and president and CEO of American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc. said: “Air Liquide’s hydrogen business in the U.S. has grown in step with market demand to reliably meet the needs of our customers. We continue to build our hydrogen infrastructure in support of the evolving energy sector, a growth driver for Air Liquide.”

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Air Liquide and hydrogen
Air Liquide has produced hydrogen for over 40 years and holds 320 patents in hydrogen technologies. The Group operates more than 200 hydrogen production units worldwide of which 50 are large units, for revenue of $1.7 billion (€1.2 billion) in 2008. Twelve hydrogen pipeline networks totalling 1,150 miles (1,850 km) serve large customers in industrial basins in the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and China.

Preserving the atmosphere
In 2008, worldwide refineries used hydrogen from Air Liquide to produce cleaner burning fuels, preventing 849,000 tons (770,000 tonnes) of sulphur dioxide emissions from cars and trucks.