Air Products Holds Groundbreaking for World-Class SMR at Covestro in Texas

Already Sold-Out Baytown Facility to be Connected to World's Largest Hydrogen Plant and Pipeline System

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Feb 25, 2016, 03:08 ET

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE: APD), the leading global hydrogen provider, today held a groundbreaking ceremony at Covestro's Baytown, Texas facility where Air Products will invest $350-$400 million to build, own and operate a world-scale steam methane reformer (SMR). The SMR will produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO) to be supplied to Covestro and other customers linked to Air Products' Gulf Coast Hydrogen and CO Pipeline Networks. The plant, which will start-up in 2018, is already completely sold out.

"We have worked with Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) for decades and look forward to being an important industrial gas supplier to them in Baytown for many more years to come. The new SMR strengthens Air Products' position in the Texas carbon monoxide (CO) market and enhances our well established hydrogen supply network," said Corning Painter, executive vice president, Industrial Gases at Air Products.

The SMR and cold box will be located on land leased from Covestro, a world-leading manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials for key industries, headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany. The SMR will produce approximately 125 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen and a world-scale supply of carbon monoxide. Covestro products and application solutions are nearly everywhere in modern life. With its innovative strength, Covestro is constantly coming up with new developments that benefit society and the environment.

"Safe, reliable and efficient operations through our people remains extremely important at Covestro. We continually develop our people to improve safety and respect the environment, as well as optimize our processes to improve our yields to top levels in industry, which means less raw materials, less waste and higher efficiencies," said Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Covestro's chief industrial operations officer. "Covestro's alignment with Air Products will further improve our Baytown site's reliable supply to our valued customers."

Covestro's Baytown facility, its largest plant in North and Central America, was established in 1971 and employs a workforce of 1,100 with an additional 750 contractors. Covestro's primary products at its Baytown site include toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and methylene diphenylene isocyanates (MDI), in addition to coatings and adhesives, inorganic basic chemicals, polycarbonates, and polyurethanes. It is a leading supplier of high-value polymers and innovative solutions for key sectors such as transportation, construction, electronics, furniture, sports equipment and textiles.

The new SMR will be built through the global hydrogen alliance between Air Products and Technip, a world leader in project management, engineering and construction. The plant will feature the latest technology to maximize energy efficiency and reduce emissions, and will include optimal heat integration, which in turn lowers feedstock consumption. The plant configuration and deployed technologies support Air Products' overall sustainability goals of reducing energy consumption and emissions.

For over 20 years the Air Products and Technip global alliance has provided the worldwide refining industry with competitive technology and world-class safety. The alliance is responsible for over 35 hydrogen production plants located in 11 countries around the world and produces well over two billion standard cubic feet of hydrogen per day for clean fuels production. Technip provides the design and construction expertise for steam reformers while Air Products provides the gas separation technology. Air Products, through its extensive operating network, and Technip, from its large reference base, also bring effective operational and engineering knowledge to "design-in" high reliability and efficiency. The plants are operated and maintained by Air Products under long-term agreements with customers.

Painter also added that the ability for the new plant to connect to Air Products' existing Gulf Coast Pipeline (GCP), the world's largest hydrogen plant and pipeline network system, remains a value-added plus for hydrogen customers in terms of ensuring product reliability. Air Products officially dedicated its GCP in 2012. The 600-mile pipeline span stretches from the Houston Ship Channel in Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana, and supplies customers with over 1.4 billion feet of hydrogen per day from over 22 hydrogen production facilities.

Pipelines offer a safe, robust and reliable supply of hydrogen to the refinery and petrochemical industries around the world. Globally, Air Products' pipeline operational expertise is evidenced by its network of systems. Besides the GCP, Air Products also has a hydrogen pipeline in California in the U.S., in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Hydrogen is widely used in petroleum refining processes to remove impurities found in crude oil such as sulphur, olefins and aromatics to meet product fuels specifications. Removing these components allows gasoline and diesel to burn cleaner and thus makes hydrogen a critical component in the production of cleaner fuels needed by modern, efficient internal combustion engines.

About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading Industrial Gases company celebrating 75 years of operation. The company's core Industrial Gases business provides atmospheric and process gases and related equipment to manufacturing markets, including refining and petrochemical, metals, electronics, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the world's leading supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The company's Materials Technologies business, which Air Products intends to spin-off by September 2016, serves the semiconductor, polyurethanes, cleaning and coatings, and adhesives industries.

The company had fiscal 2015 sales of $9.9 billion and was ranked number 284 on the Fortune 500 annual list of public companies. Approximately 20,000 employees in 50 countries strive to make Air Products the world's safest and best performing industrial gases company, providing sustainable offerings and excellent service to all customers. For more information, visit www.airproducts.com.

About Covestro:
With 2014 sales of EUR 11.8 billion, Covestro is among the world's largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction and sports and leisure industries. Covestro, formerly Bayer MaterialScience, has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 15,700 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of September 2015. Find more information at www.covestro.com, and follow Covestro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CovestroGroup.

About Technip
Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry.

From the deepest Subsea oil & gas developments to the largest and most complex Offshore and Onshore infrastructures, our close to 34,400 people are constantly offering the best solutions and most innovative technologies to meet the world's energy challenges.

Present in 45 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.

Technip shares are listed on the Euronext Paris exchanges, and its ADR is traded in the US on the OTCQX marketplace as an American Depositary Receipt (OTCQX: TKPPY).

NOTE: This release may contain forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release regarding important risk factors. Actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors not anticipated by management, including risk factors described in the Company's Form 10K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2015.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Downloadable photos from today's groundbreaking ceremony at Covestro are available in Air Products' online News Center.

SOURCE Air Products