Solvay, Air Liquide Form Joint Venture for Fluorine Gas

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland)--Solvay S.A. (EBR:SOLB) (Brussels, Belgium) and Air Liquide S.A. (EPA:AI) (Paris, France) have entered into an agreement to form a worldwide fluorine gas business joint venture. Citing growing, worldwide demand for environmentally friendly production equipment cleaning gases within the flat-panel display and silicon thin-film photovoltaic industries, Solvay and Air Liquide have formed the joint venture to provide onsite fluorine production.

Air Liquide brings its global presence, infrastructure and existing gas supply relationships with leading manufacturers to the joint venture. Since 2009, Air Liquide has aggressively pursued the photovoltaic and electronics industries, signing long-term contracts for both industrial gases and on-site services with the largest production sites worldwide, such as IRICO Electronics site in Hefei, China. For additional information, see July 19, 2011, article - Vigorous Photovoltaic Industry Drives Demand for Air Liquide Air Separation Units.

The new joint venture will allow Air Liquide to broaden its offer by proposing an alternative to existing cleaning gases for its customers. In addition to carrier and specialty gases and precursor materials used in the manufacturing process, it will now supply fluorine cleaning gas solutions. "This major step will allow Air Liquide to expand its offer in the fast-growing electronics market," said François Darchis, the senior vice-president and a member of Air Liquide's executive committee.

The partnership also will leverage Solvay's 45 years of experience in running large-scale fluorine production and raw material supply chains.

The newly formed joint venture company will build, own and operate modular on-site fluorine cleaning gas units. The partners claim to be able to offer significant economic benefits based on Solvay's modular fluorine production technology. Fluorine will become an alternative to nitrogen trifluoride gas (NF3), which is a commonly used cleaning application in the flat-panel display and silicon thin-film photovoltaic industries. Together with increased productivity, switching to fluorine gas has added benefits for the environment, as it has no global warming potential.

"This partnership will help satisfy growing world demand for environmentally friendly cleaning gases," said Vincent De Cuyper, the group general manager of the Chemicals Sector and a member of the executive committee of Solvay. "The combination of market experience and know-how from Air Liquide, the market leader in gases for the electronics industry, and Solvay's proprietary breakthrough modular technology, will enable our partnership to offer significant economic benefits to its customers and bring, at the same time, advantages for the environment."

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