Hydrogen supply agreement for oil sands

Air Products Canada Ltd., the Canadian subsidiary of Air Products of Lehigh Valley, Penn., has announced plans to build a 2.97-million-standard-m3/day hydrogen production plant to serve several Alberta oil sands customers and the Petro-Canada refinery in Edmonton. It will be the first industrial gas facility to provide sale of hydrogen for use in upgrading the oil sands. This is the 28th hydrogen plant build under the global alliance between Air Products and Technip, in which Technip provides the design and construction for the hydrogen units, while Air Products provides the gas separation technology. The hydrogen — and steam-generating facility is expected to come onstream in April 2008.

Air Products is already building a 2.01-million-standard-m3/day hydrogen plant to supply Petro-Canada’s 135,000-bbl/day refinery and several other customers in the Edmonton area. That one is expected to be onstream in April 2006. The two interconnected hydrogen facilities will be adjacent to Petro-Canada’s refinery. A third Canadian hydrogen plant is being built in Sarnia, Ont., and should open in May 2006. For more information see www.technip.com or www.airproducts.com.