New 30 t/d liquid hydrogen plant comes online in Texas

Air Products new liquid hydrogen plant has come online at its La Porte, Texas facility in the US, H2Bulletin reports.

The new 30 tonnes/day liquid hydrogen plant will connect to, and draw hydrogen to be liquefied from, Air Products’ Gulf Coast Pipeline (GCP), around a 700-mile pipeline stretching from the Houston Ship Channel in Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana, capable to supply with over 1.9 billion feet/day of hydrogen from 25 hydrogen production facilities.

From its newest commercial facility at La Porte, the hydrogen will be delivered in trailers to customers in several industries including, electronics, chemical and petrochemical, metals, material handling, float glass, edible fats and oils, utilities and mobility market.

Air Products also plans to build a green liquid hydrogen production facility in the Southwest US, producing liquid hydrogen to be sold to the hydrogen for mobility market in California and other locations requiring zero-carbon hydrogen fuel.  It has liquid hydrogen production plants operating in New Orleans (Louisiana), Sacramento (California), Sarnia (Ontario, Canada) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands).

Air Products recently announced its intent to begin the process of converting its global fleet of around 2,000 distribution vehicles to hydrogen fuel cell zero-emission vehicles starting in 2022.

The vast pipeline includes the supply of blue hydrogen from Air Products’ Port Arthur, Texas facility, where around one million tonnes of CO2 has been captured annually since 2013, transported via pipeline, and used in enhanced oil recovery operations.

Francesco Maione, president, Americas at Air Products, said, “The addition of this new capacity also will allow us to target the increased growth we anticipate from several markets, namely the hydrogen for mobility market.”