On Friday, French listed industrial gases multinational Air Liquide announced a 20-year agreement with Jiangsu Shagang Group, the largest private steel company in China and a top-five global steelmaker, to supply industrial gases in Zhangjiagang, in China’s eastern coastal Jiangsu Province. Under the terms of the deal, Air Liquide will invest EUR 100 million (around $120 million) toward the construction of a state-of-the-art Air Separation Unit (ASU) powered by low-carbon energy, set to become the world’s single-largest steel industry ASU. The facility will also produce krypton and xenon, rare gases used in electronics industry applications.
Air Liquide will build, own and operate the ASU, which has a planned daily capacity of 3,800 tons of oxygen. The facility is slated to become operational in late 2023, bringing the site’s total installed oxygen capacity to over 8,000 tons per day. The ASU will be equipped with Air Liquide’s trademarked power solution Alive, which allows for up to 60 MW of daily energy storage, enabling greater grid flexibility and improving gas supply reliability. The new ASU will contribute to a lower carbon footprint for this flagship site, in support of Air Liquide’s efforts toward company-wide carbon neutrality.
This ASU will be a key source of krypton and xenon for Air Liquide, addressing growing demand of the electronics industry. The Zhangjiagang site will also become Air Liquide’s largest liquid oxygen and nitrogen source in China, supporting small-and-medium sized customers of liquid and packaged gases, including local hospitals requiring high-purity medical gases, in Eastern China.
Air Liquide already operates nearly 120 plants and employs close to 5,000 people in China. Having long been present in China’ key coastal industrial cities, the company is expand into the center, south and west, with operates in industrial and medical gases, engineering and construction of ASU and hydrogen facilities, and various R&D activities.
Francois Abrial, a member of Air Liquide Group’s Executive Commission for Asia Pacific, said the deal was a further enhancement of Air Liquide and Shagang Group’s ongoing partnership, in place since 2007.
“With this state-of-the-art low carbon plant, we are committed to leveraging our innovative solutions to help our customers reduce the carbon footprint of steel-making and other industries. This is a new illustration of our commitment to act for a sustainable future and reach carbon neutrality by 2050,” Abrial said.
“Building on our strong cooperation, this new contract will further strengthen our relationship while bringing down Shagang’s production cost and energy consumption,” Jiangsu Shagang Group Chairman Shen Wenrong said. “Echoing China’s objectives for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, we look forward to working with Air Liquide to explore decarbonizing steel-making through technologies of hydrogen metallurgy and carbon capture.”
Late last month, Air Liquide announced plans to invest around EUR 70 million (around $83 million) for a state-of-the-art industrial gases plant in Wuhan, China, to supply a major memory chipmaker. This facility will produce 52,000 Nm3 of nitrogen per hour, as well as oxygen and argon among other ultra-high purity gases, and is slated to begin operations in 2022.
