MOSCOW (MRC) - Air Liquide has acquired a 40% equity stake in renewable hydrogen development company H2V Normandy, a subsidiary of H2V Product (Paris, France), which plans to build an electrolyzer complex of up to 200 megawatts (MW) in France to produce and supply green- and low-carbon hydrogen for industrial applications, reported Chemweek.
No financial details for the transaction have been given.
The electrolyzer project is planned to be built in the industrial zone of Port-Jerome, Normandy, to supply hydrogen for industrial and future heavy mobility applications, Air Liquide says. The project aims to develop new energies to decarbonize industrial activities, mainly in chemicals and refining, on the Seine Valley axis in Normandy, one of Air Liquide’s historical industrial basins in France, it says. The planned development would enable 250,000 metric tonnes/year of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to be avoided, it adds.
The investment “demonstrates Air Liquide’s long-term commitment to hydrogen energy and its ambition to be a major player in the supply of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, in order to contribute to the decarbonization of the industry and mobility markets,” it says.
Air Liquide has previously deployed a solution for CO2 capture, CryocapTM, on its existing Port-Jerome hydrogen production facility.
With France “resolutely committed to energy transition with an ambitious hydrogen plan,” Air Liquide is investing locally to develop the activity, says Air Liquide’s Francois Jackow, executive vice president and an executive committee member. The investment is in line with the company’s commitment to supply renewable or low-carbon hydrogen to support the decarbonization of industry and promote hydrogen as a key element in the energy transition, he says.
As MRC informed earlier, in September 2020, Air Liquide finalised an agreement with Sasol to acquire the biggest oxygen production site in the world with a plan to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 30%. After the announcement on July 29, the international major industry gas company has now entered into a business purchase agreement with Sasol to acquire the oxygen production site in Secunda, South Africa.
We remind that Sasol's world-scale US ethane cracker with the capacity of 1.5 mln tonnes per year reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol's new cracker, the heart of LCCP, is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities that came online and will provide feedstock to the company's six new derivative units at Sasol's Lake Charles multi-asset site.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
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