Airgas Begins Construction of Grassroot Liquid Carbon Dioxide Plant In Virginia

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Airgas Carbonic (Duluth, Georgia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Airgas Incorporated (NYSE: ARG) (Radnor, Pennsylvania), has begun civil site work for their grassroot liquid carbon dioxide plant to be located in Hopewell, Virginia. The new plant will be adjacent to an existing 410,000 metric ton per year ammonia plant owned and operated by Honeywell (Morristown, New Jersey).

This new plant will take gaseous carbon dioxide as a feedstock from the Honeywell plant to produce liquid carbon dioxide and dry ice. Toromont Process Systems (Houston, Texas) was awarded a turn-key contract in the first quarter of this year to design, engineer, and construct this $9 million plant.

Most of the plant will consist of skid-mounted units constructed in Houston and delivered to the site this fall. Commercial operation is planned to begin January 1, 2003.