Air Liquide received a €110 million ($115.7 million) grant Dec. 10 from the European Commission’s Innovation Fund to build a renewable ammonia cracking plant and hydrogen liquefier.
The company will build the plant in the port of Antwerp-Bruges, Belgium, as part of its Enhance project.
What is Air Liquide’s Enhance program?
Enhance is the first European industrial-scale project for the production and distribution of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen using ammonia as a feedstock.
As part of this initiative, Air Liquide intends to retrofit one of its hydrogen production units located in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, using renewable ammonia as a feedstock instead of natural gas and would also build a hydrogen liquefier.
This new facility would support the development of a low-carbon and renewable hydrogen supply chain in Europe and contribute to the decarbonization of a wide range of hard-to-abate customers, such as refineries, chemicals, as well as heavy duty road, maritime transport and aviation.
Replacing natural gas with ammonia to produce gaseous and liquid hydrogen would allow the project to reduce the CO₂ emissions by more than 300,000 metric tons per year, according to Air Liquide.
About the Author
Jonathan Katz | Executive Editor
Jonathan Katz, executive editor, brings nearly two decades of experience as a B2B journalist to Chemical Processing magazine. He has expertise on a wide range of industrial topics. Jon previously served as the managing editor for IndustryWeek magazine and, most recently, as a freelance writer specializing in content marketing for the manufacturing sector.
His knowledge areas include industrial safety, environmental compliance/sustainability, lean manufacturing/continuous improvement, Industry 4.0/automation and many other topics of interest to the Chemical Processing audience.
When he’s not working, Jon enjoys fishing, hiking and music, including a small but growing vinyl collection.
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