Sustainability key to growth at Air Products

Energy Connects spoke exclusively with Air Products’ Chief Operating Officer Dr. Samir J. Serhan in the lead up to Gastech 2023 in Singapore in September as he explained why sustainability is such a big focus for the company.

What is Air Products’ view of the energy transition?

We all need to recognise that every second of delay is a missed opportunity to drive decarbonisation. At Air Products, we have taken that commitment very seriously. In 2022 we announced an increase of US$4 billion in our spending for energy transition, low-carbon hydrogen and first-mover projects, which ups our overall planned spending in this area to $15 billion by 2027.

Currently, we have energy transition projects in execution in Alberta, Canada for a net-zero hydrogen energy complex; a clean hydrogen energy facility in Louisiana; a green ammonia project in NEOM, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and a sustainable aviation fuel project in California. We have also announced a hydropower project in New York, and a zero-carbon hydrogen project in Texas using solar and wind power.

Air Products is well-suited for this first-mover role with 60 years of experience producing and handling hydrogen to develop projects that produce low- and zero-carbon hydrogen as the energy source of the future. This experience is amplified by our unique and proprietary technologies and know-how in gasification of hydrocarbons, and a decade of proven carbon dioxide (CO2) capture. We want to extend our current world-leading position in the production of gray hydrogen to be the leader in producing green hydrogen based on renewable resources and blue hydrogen combined with CO2 capture.

Where does sustainability factor into project decision-making at Air Products?

Sustainability is at the top of the list when considering projects at Air Products. It has to be and it is vital to our growth strategy and to reach our publicly stated goal of net-zero emissions from our operations by 2050. We understand that supportive policy and regulatory actions will also be needed to reach our goal, but we will take every step possible to reach our 2050 target. This includes strengthening our previously announced “Third by ‘30” goal to reduce Scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions intensity by one-third by 2030, and have now added Scope 3 emissions to that goal.

Why is hydrogen so important to the success of the energy transition?

Given the fact that the world needs more energy, and it wants it with a lower carbon footprint, hydrogen has an absolutely critical role to play in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors of our economy. There are some things you can do to decarbonise with renewable electricity, but there’s many opportunities and applications where it’s impossible or impractical to do so with electricity and, hence, hydrogen is right there and plays a key role.

It is widely recognised hydrogen is the energy of the future for hard to decarbonise sectors like steel, heavy trucks, and chemicals. We are having very interesting conversations with our customers who recognise the tremendous value of low carbon hydrogen, and as a result, we are developing and delivering some of the largest and most complex projects in Company history while fulfilling our core values of safety and integrity and providing reliability and operational excellence to our customers.

Will LNG have an energy transition role?

Air Products’ proprietary and leading position in liquefied natural gas (LNG) heat exchanger technology continues to play an important role in the energy transition. LNG, the cleanest fossil fuel, provides an excellent alternative to other fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The majority of total worldwide LNG is produced with Air Products’ technology. Continued growth in the LNG industry is evidenced in the past year with Air Products announcing new agreements for new projects using our LNG technology in Qatar, in the United States, and in China.

How do customers benefit from Air Products’ sustainability approach?

Every day around the world Air Products’ industrial gas products are used in hundreds of different applications, and every day our products are essential to our customers’ sustainability performance. Our product offerings and technical expertise helps our customers increase productivity, produce better quality products, and reduce energy use and lower emissions. In 2022, we helped our customers and the world avoid 86 million metric tons of CO2 emissions as a result of the use of our products

Gastech is at the heart of natural gas, LNG, hydrogen, low-carbon solutions, and climate technologies

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