Air Liquide Selects E&C Firm for Grassroot West Coast Hydrogen Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Air Liquide America L.P. (Houston, Texas), a subsidiary of Air Liquide S A (PARIS: FR:006691), has selected Howe-Baker International LLC (Tyler, Texas) to complete engineering, procurement, and construction management for their planned grassroot hydrogen plant in California.

Basic design and engineering was completed by Holdor Topsoe, the technology provider for the approximately 100 million scfd (standard cubic feet per day) hydrogen plant that will be located adjacent to an existing petroleum refinery owned and operated by Chevron Products Company in El Segundo. Air Liquide will provide Chevron with hydrogen over the fence, and supply merchant product to the local area, as demand requires.

Once the new plant is complete and operational in late 2004, Chevron plans to idle its existing hydrogen production unit and depend exclusively on the new plant to meet its growing demand for hydrogen. Civil site construction is planned to begin in August or September of this summer.

In a recent IIR Industry Alert titled Industrialinfo.com Identifies Nearly $1 Billion in New Hydrogen Projects Industrialinfo.com's Chemical Group Manager, Trey Hamblet commented, "Petroleum refiners are the number one consumer of the new hydrogen capacity as a direct result of the clean fuels programs being implemented across North America and refiners using heavier crude feedstock."

This project was reported as part of Industrialinfo.com's North America Project Database and once this plant becomes operational it will be included in Industrialinfo.com's West Coast Online Plant Directory that is updated and refreshed on a monthly basis.