Linde Gas North America and Air Products have formed Hydrochlor, a 50-50 joint venture to supply high purity anhydrous hydrochloric acid (HCl) to the electronics and other industries.
As part of the agreement, Hydrochlor will build a facility to process and package HCl supplied via pipeline from The Dow Chemical Co. The new facility will be located on Dow's Freeport, Texas, site. A team of managers from each partner company will oversee Hydrochlor. The facility, scheduled to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2012, will meet current merchant requirements and can be expanded to serve growth in market demand.
Hydrochlor will sell HCl exclusively to the joint venture partners, who will continue to market HCl independently. Until the new facility's startup, Dow will continue to supply HCl to Linde at its Lovington, N.M., facility and to Air Products at its Hometown, Pa., location.
Semiconductor manufacturers use HCl to clean reactors used in the epitaxial process and for chamber cleaning. A majority of North American merchant HCl goes to the pharmaceuticals and agricultural industries. HCl also serves for making inorganic chlorides.
Linde recently entered into another partnership – this one aimed at offering better blending solutions.
Linde Gases, a division of The Linde Group, and Bellevue, Wash.-based Pulsair Systems will collaborate to offer a more efficient and effective liquid circulation process.
Linde provides atmospheric gases to global process industries that use compressed air or inert gas in their liquid mixing process. The partnership will add Pulsair's pulsed-air technology to the mix.
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It sequentially releases compressed air or gas from the bottom of the tank or vessel containing a liquid or multiple liquids to create circulation and mixing. Measured amounts of high pressure air or gas are injected - or "pulsed" - under flat round discs called accumulator plates, which are installed on the tank bottom.
The sudden release of air or gas shocks the liquid, setting molecules in motion. As the air or gas forces itself out between the plate and tank floor, it sweeps out heavier liquids and even solids. The air or gas then accumulates above the plate into a very large, single oval shaped bubble. As the bubble rises to the surface, a vacuum is created, pulling heavier bottom liquids and solids up with it. It also pushes the liquid above it up and out toward the tank perimeter. The liquid then moves toward the sides of the tank and travels down the tank wall to the bottom, repeating the process.
In other news, another Linde partnership has proven award worthy.
A biofuel plant owned and operated by a joint venture between Linde North America and Waste Management received a 2010 California Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award.
Recognized in the category of Sustainable Facility, the plant is located at Waste Management's Altamont Landfill and Resource Recovery Facility near Livermore, Calif. The plant produces up to 13,000 gallons a day of near-zero-carbon fuel.
Since Linde and Waste Management's plant began operating in September 2009, it has produced over 2 million gallons of clean, renewable fuel from landfill gas generated through the decomposition of waste at the Altamont Landfill.
