Materials & Solids Processing
Demands from traditional markets, including steel making, and the emergence of new markets such as biofuels are ensuring that the demand remains high for industrial gases.
Les demandes émanant des marchés traditionnels, notamment de l’aciérie, et l’émergence de nouveaux marchés tels que les
biocombustibles permettent de veiller au maintien à un niveau élevé de la demande en gaz industriels.
Die Nachfrage traditioneller Märkte, zu denen unter anderem die Stahlherstellung gehört, aber auch aufkommende neue Märkte wie etwa Biokraftstoffe sorgen dafür, dass die Nachfrage nach Industriegasen ununterbrochen hoch bleibt.
Industrial gas demand fuelled by traditional and new markets
new opportunities emerging in the biofuel sector and ongoing investment in large projects in the Far East, demand is certainly robust. For example, Air Liquide has just signed another major long-term contract in the steel industry in China. It will invest about €40 million in Yichun, Heilongjiang Province (northeastern China), 350km north of Harbin, Heilongjiang’s capital city, to supply Xilin Steel Group, a new customer, with oxygen, nitrogen and argon. A 1200 t/d air separation unit (ASU) will be designed and built by Air Liquide Hangzhou, the engineering teams of Air Liquide in China, and will be commissioned in the first quarter of 2012. Over 40 years, Xilin Steel has become the
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largest iron and steel producer –and the biggest private enterprise – in Heilongjiang province. It has grown while rationalising and modernising its production facility, so as to become the most profitable iron and steel enterprise in the whole of north-eastern China. Meanwhile the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is launching the first phase of a project to build a biomass conversion pilot unit that will transform agricultural and forestry residues into second generation biofuel, in Bure Saudron, which is located 80 km from Nancy in northeastern France. The CNIM group (Constructions Industrielles de la Méditerranée) will be the project’s general contractor. Air Liquide, a partner on this project, will be supplying key technologies needed to transform synthesis gas into biofuel. Air Liquide Engineering and Construction
teams (notably through its subsidiary Lurgi) are responsible for coordinating some of the technical engineering operations and process steps downstream, from gasification through final biofuel upgrading. Air Liquide will also provide oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen is a required component of the gasification process, and hydrogen is used to enhance the quantity and quality of the synthetic fuel produced. The demonstration unit, which combines in a single facility all of the various second generation
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ccording to a study by The Freedonia Group, demand for industrial gases in the US alone will reach US$23.5 b by 2013. Worldwide that figure is expected to go beyond US$40b. With
biofuel production elements, will be the first production unit of this kind in France. Business is good for Praxair too, and the
company has just signed a contract with ExxonMobil to build, own and operate an ASU to supply additional nitrogen for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations at ExxonMobil’s Hawkins gas processing plant site in Texas. Under the new contract, Praxair will install
a new production facility to meet ExxonMobil’s requirements for nitrogen. Operations from the new supply network are scheduled for start-up in the second half of 2011. Praxair will produce 85m ft3/d of high-pressure nitrogen and additional quantities of liquid argon. ExxonMobil currently uses Praxair’s nitrogen
gas to increase the amount of oil recovered from its Hawkins plant. ExxonMobil will utilise additional nitrogen to help them recover more oil and natural gas reserves. In a separate deal and under a 15-year
agreement, Praxair China will build a nitrogen plant and integrate its patented direct-injection technology at Marcegalia’s new steel-tube mill in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. The mill will produce 350 000 t/y of stainless, carbon precision and cold drawn steel tubes used in the construction, appliance, engineering-component and energy markets. Phase one of the project is scheduled to start up in June 2010 and phase two in 2011. Praxair’s plant will have a capacity of about
100 t/d of nitrogen. Praxair’s direct-injection technology uses the nitrogen, together with fuel gas, to generate a precise atmosphere during the heat-treating phase of steel production, resulting in enhanced product quality. Currently, Praxair’s direct-injection technology is operating successfully at a Marcegaglia mill in Italy. “This project demonstrates how Praxair is able to transfer world-class technology around the globe for the benefit of our customers,” said Joe Cappello, president of Praxair Asia. In the US, Airgas has opened its new industrial,
medical and specialty gas facility and hard goods store in Harvey, Los Angeles, to meet demand for cylinder gases in the region. Airgas is the largest US distributor of industrial, medical, and specialty gases, and related hard goods, such as welding equipment and supplies.
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