Air Products Holds Grand Opening at Its Doe Canyon Helium Plant

Facility is the World's First to Produce Helium from Carbon Dioxide Stream

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Aug 19, 2015, 03:16 ET

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Aug. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE: APD), a global leader in helium production, today held a grand opening at its new Doe Canyon helium production facility in Colorado. The Doe Canyon helium plant is the only one in the world extracting helium from a gas stream composed primarily of carbon dioxide (CO₂). The helium from this new facility further diversifies Air Products' supply chain to ensure a reliable and stable supply of product for its customers.

"Today celebrates an accomplishment that has not been achieved before. We are capturing an important molecule—that being helium—from a naturally occurring stream of carbon dioxide provided by this site's host Kinder Morgan, who I would like to thank for their cooperation with this venture," said Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products' chairman, president and chief executive officer. "In doing so, our company takes another step forward to maintain the leading position we have earned in this industry and to help to ensure Air Products continues to build on the helium market leadership established and enhanced over many decades."

Much of the helium produced in the United States today comes from the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) system, however, the BLM system is in decline, and eventually that storage supply will be depleted. At the same time, the world's demand for helium is likely to continue to grow and is why new sources of helium are needed. The purified helium at the new Colorado facility will be liquefied on-site for subsequent delivery to Air Products' customers. The plant is expected to produce up to 230 million standard cubic feet of helium per year, replacing more than 15 percent of the current BLM reserve helium supply as that system declines.

"People often talk about 'thinking outside-the-box', and that is really the case in this instance. This is not just another liquid helium plant, we're using cutting edge technology to extract and produce helium that would have otherwise been lost. Bringing the Doe Canyon helium plant on-stream is just one more step in a series of steps that we've taken in order to become the most reliable supplier of helium to our customers around the world," said Corning Painter, Air Products' executive vice president and general manager of Industrial Gases.

Most of the helium produced around the world is a by-product of natural gas (methane) processing. However, not all natural gas fields contain helium, and in fact very few gas fields have high enough helium concentrations to make it economical for extraction. In this case, the natural gas is composed of primarily CO₂, and it contains high enough concentrations of helium to make it economical for extraction.

Air Products' Colorado facility will use a new technology process to produce pure helium from the CO₂ stream. Kinder Morgan, operator of the Doe Canyon Unit, supplies this CO₂ to the Permian Basin in West Texas, where the CO₂ is used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Air Products will extract the helium and return the CO₂ to Kinder Morgan for its intended EOR use.

Helium is used in many unique and valued applications including: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); lifting for high altitude scientific research balloons, blimps and party balloons; fiber optics and semiconductor manufacturing; metallurgy; breathing atmospheres for deep diving or unique blood gas medical mixtures; analytical chemistry; pressurizing and purging pipes, vessels, and other critical equipment; leak detection; and other advanced applications.

About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a leading industrial gases company. For nearly 75 years, the company has provided atmospheric, process and specialty gases, and related equipment to manufacturing markets including metals, food and beverage, refining and petrochemical, and natural gas liquefaction. Air Products' materials technologies segment serves the semiconductor, polyurethanes, cleaning and coatings, and adhesives industries. Over 20,000 employees in 50 countries are working to make Air Products the world's safest and best performing industrial gases company, providing sustainable offerings and excellent service to all customers. In fiscal 2014, Air Products had sales of $10.4 billion and was ranked number 276 on the Fortune 500 annual list of public companies. For more information, visit www.airproducts.com.

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, 2014.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
Photos of the Doe Canyon plant and grand opening ceremony are available in Air Products' online News Center.

SOURCE Air Products