LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., June 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products
(NYSE: APD), the leading global hydrogen provider, today held a ribbon-cutting event at the Covestro LLC Baytown, Texas, industrial park, where Air Products has invested over $350
million to build, own and operate a world-scale steam methane reformer (SMR). The SMR is producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO) to be
supplied at Baytown to Covestro and to other customers linked to Air Products' Gulf Coast
Hydrogen and CO Pipeline Networks.
"Our decades-long relationship with Covestro and its predecessor companies continues to grow with this new facility in
Baytown. Our new plant is important to our host site customer Covestro for the carbon monoxide
produced, but the facility also offers other benefits to Air Products, other customers, and even the general public. The new SMR
strengthens Air Products' position in the Texas CO market, and it increases the product capacity of our well-established hydrogen
pipeline supply network while creating a product necessary to making cleaner burning transportation fuels, which helps to keep
the air we breathe cleaner," said Marie Ffolkes , president‒Industrial Gases Americas at Air Products.
The SMR and cold box are both located on land leased from Covestro, a world-leading manufacturer of high-tech polymer
materials for diverse industries, such as automotive, construction and furniture. The SMR produces approximately 125 million
standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of hydrogen and a world-scale supply of carbon monoxide, a critical raw
material for Covestro's chemical production in Baytown.
"We're proud to host Air Products and its world-class SMR facility at our Baytown Industrial Park," said Rod Herrick, vice president, Covestro Baytown Industrial Park. "We're always exploring new opportunities to
increase the reliability and efficiency of our Baytown operations, and today marks an important
milestone on that journey. The new SMR facility will strengthen our regional supply network, which in turn allows us to better
serve our customers."
Air Products' new SMR was built through the global
hydrogen alliance between Air Products and TechnipFMC, a global leader in subsea onshore/offshore, and surface projects
for the energy industry. The plant features the latest technology to maximize energy efficiency and reduce emissions, and
includes optimal heat integration, which in turn lowers feedstock consumption. The plant configuration and deployed technologies
support Air Products' overall sustainability goals of reducing energy consumption and emissions.
Ffolkes added that Air Products' ability for the new plant to connect to its existing Gulf Coast Pipeline (GCP), the world's largest
hydrogen plant and pipeline network system, remains a value-added plus for hydrogen customers in terms of ensuring product
reliability. In April 2018, Air Products announced another increase to the supply capacity of
its GCP supply network by approximately 40 mmscfd from processing hydrogen-rich off-gas from a propane
dehydrogenation plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. Air Products officially innaugurated its GCP in
2012. The 600-mile pipeline span 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 23 hydrogen production facilities.
Pipelines
offer a safe, robust and reliable supply of hydrogen to the refinery and petrochemical industries around the
world. Globally, Air Products' pipeline operational expertise is evidenced by its network of systems. Besides the GCP, Air
Products also has a hydrogen pipeline in California in the U.S., in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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.
About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE:APD) is a world-leading
Industrial Gases company in operation for over 75 years. The Company's core industrial gases business provides atmospheric and
process gases and related equipment to manufacturing markets, including refining and petrochemical, metals, electronics, and food
and beverage. Air Products is also the world's leading supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment.
The Company had fiscal 2017 sales of $8.2 billion from continuing operations in 50 countries and
has a current market capitalization of about $35 billion. Approximately 15,000 passionate, talented
and committed employees from a diversity of backgrounds are driven by Air Products' higher purpose to create innovative solutions
that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and address the challenges facing customers, communities and the world. For
more information, visit www.airproducts.com.
About Covestro:
With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, Covestro is among the world's largest polymer companies.
Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for
products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and
furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the
chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people (calculated as
full-time equivalents) at the end of 2017.
About Covestro's Baytown Facility
Covestro's Baytown facility, its largest plant in North and Central America, was established in 1971 and hosts approximately 2,000 workers onsite. Covestro's primary
products at its Baytown site include toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and methylene diphenylene
isocyanates (MDI), in addition to coatings and adhesives, inorganic basic chemicals, polycarbonates, and polyurethanes. It
is a leading supplier of high-value polymers and innovative solutions for key sectors such as transportation, construction,
electronics, furniture, sports equipment and textiles.
About TechnipFMC
TechnipFMC plc is a global leader in subsea, onshore/offshore, and surface projects. With our proprietary technologies
and production systems, integrated expertise, and comprehensive solutions, we are transforming our clients' project
economics.
We are uniquely positioned to deliver greater efficiency across project lifecycles from concept to project delivery and
beyond. Through innovative technologies and improved efficiencies, our offering unlocks new possibilities for our clients in
developing their oil and gas resources.
Each of our more than 37,000 employees is driven by a steady commitment to clients and a culture of purposeful innovation,
challenging industry conventions, and rethinking how the best results are achieved.
To learn more about us and how we are enhancing the performance of the world's energy industry, go to TechnipFMC.com and follow us on Twitter@TechnipFMC.
About the Air Products/TechnipFMC Global Alliance
For more than 25 years, the Air Products and Technip global alliance has provided the worldwide refining
industry with competitive technology and world-class safety. The alliance is responsible for over 35 hydrogen production plants
located in 11 countries around the world and produces well over two billion standard cubic feet of hydrogen per day for clean
fuels production. TechnipFMC provides the design and construction expertise for steam reformers, while Air Products provides the
gas separation technology. Air Products, through its extensive operating network, and Technip, from its large reference base,
also bring effective operational and engineering knowledge to "design-in" high reliability and efficiency. The plants are
operated and maintained by Air Products under long-term agreements with customers.
NOTE: This release may contain forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions
as of the date of this release regarding important risk factors. Actual performance and financial results may differ materially
from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors not anticipated by management,
including risk factors described in the company's Form 10K for its fiscal year ended September 30,
2017.
EDITOR'S NOTE : Downloadable photos of the Baytown facility and ribbon-cutting event are
available in Air Products' online News Center.
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SOURCE Air Products