Air Products Signs Two Agreements to Move Texas Carbon Capture and Sequestration Project Forward

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May 26, 2011, 11:30 ET

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., May 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE: APD) announced today it has signed agreements with Valero Energy Corporation and Denbury Onshore, LLC to proceed with a planned carbon capture and sequestration project in Port Arthur, Texas. The carbon dioxide (CO2) to be captured by Air Products will be delivered by Air Products via a pipeline owned by Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas to Denbury Onshore beginning in late 2012. The CO2 will be used by Denbury Onshore in enhanced oil recovery operations.

"The signing of these agreements is a key step in moving this important project forward. Air Products has been an integral team member of several carbon capture projects around the world. We are a technology solutions provider and at Port Arthur we will have the opportunity to demonstrate these capabilities at a large industrial scale," said Wilbur Mok, vice president, North America Tonnage Gases for Air Products. "We look forward to working with Denbury and thank Valero for its cooperation and support at the Port Arthur location." Details on Air Products' CO2 purification technologies can be found at www.airproducts.com/CO2_capture.

Air Products will design, construct and operate a state-of-the-art system to capture CO2 from its two steam methane reformers (SMR) located within the Valero Refinery in Port Arthur. The CO2 removal technology will be retrofitted to the SMRs, which produce hydrogen to assist in the making of cleaner burning transportation fuels by refinery customers on Air Products' Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline network. Approximately one million tons of CO2 annually will be recovered, purified by Air Products, and delivered by Air Products via a pipeline owned by Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas, LLC for injection into Denbury Onshore's enhanced oil recovery projects in Texas.

In June 2010, Air Products announced it was selected to receive $253 million in Phase 2 funding from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) through the National Energy Technology Laboratory under the Industrial Carbon Capture and Sequestration (ICCS) Program for this ICCS project. It has since received an additional $30 million from DOE for the project. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are being used for final engineering, design, construction and project operation through September 2015. Air Products' project was the only industrial gas company led undertaking selected by DOE and one of only three projects receiving Phase 2 funds. DOE is providing a total of $284 million, including the funding utilized for Phase 1, or 66 percent of the over $400 million project.

DOE said in its Phase 2 selection announcement that successful development of advanced technologies and innovative concepts reducing CO2 atmospheric emissions is a key objective of the Obama Administration's efforts to help mitigate the effects of climate change. The Phase 2 projects selected were aimed at testing large-scale industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS), an important step in moving CCS technology toward eventual commercial deployment.

Air Products is currently working on several CCS projects around the world for the power market. These projects include:

The world's first full demonstration of oxyfuel carbon capture and sequestration with Vattenfall AB, one of Europe's leading energy companies. Air Products has installed its proprietary CO2 capture, purification, and compression system at Vattenfall's research and development facility in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany, which is viewed globally as the preeminent CO2 oxyfuel project.

In collaboration with the Alberta Energy Research Institute, a study focusing on advanced CO2 capture technology for use with gasification.

In cooperation with DOE, Air Products designed and constructed a CO2 purification system in support of an oxyfuel technology development project at a boiler-simulation facility in Windsor, Connecticut.

Air Products demonstrated oxyfuel sour compression technology in experimental work carried out by Imperial College London with flue gas from a 160 kilowatt coal-fired combustion installation at Doosan Babcock's facility in Renfrew, Scotland, as part of the Oxycoal-UK Project.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) serves customers in industrial, energy, technology and healthcare markets worldwide with a unique portfolio of atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials, and equipment and services. Founded in 1940, Air Products has built leading positions in key growth markets such as semiconductor materials, refinery hydrogen, home healthcare services, natural gas liquefaction, and advanced coatings and adhesives. The company is recognized for its innovative culture, operational excellence and commitment to safety and the environment. In fiscal 2010, Air Products had revenues of $9 billion, operations in over 40 countries, and 18,300 employees around the globe. 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, 2010.

SOURCE Air Products