Industrial gas giant Praxair opened a new plant in Texas that will capture hydrogen emissions from Dow’s Freeport, Texas campus so it can be converted into high-value chemicals.
The hydrogen recovery and processing plant will be connected to Dow’s new ethane cracker plant that is slated to open this summer and produce about 1.5 million tons of ethylene, a building block of plastics.
“Freeport is Dow’s largest chemical site in the world and we are proud to be supporting their continued growth in the U.S. Gulf Coast. This opportunity to further serve our customers in the region is why we extended our pipeline to Freeport,” Dan Yankowski, president of Praxair’s global hydrogen business, said in a release. “Capturing byproduct hydrogen for use in the refining and petrochemical industries is consistent with our mission of making our planet more productive.”
The plant will keep 300,000 tons of carbon emissions out of the air each year.
Praxair’s $400 million investment in the plant is part of its planned $1 billion investment plans scheduled along the Gulf Coast through 2019. The company also has a long-term agreement to supply Dow with nitrogen to use at its chemical facilities. Dow plans to use nitrogen and hydrogen for a number of chemicals manufactured for the auto and coating industries.
Dow also has major expansion plans in the region that include ethylene, polyethylene, propylene and plastics manufacturing projects. All told, Dow is planning about $6 billion worth of investments along the Gulf Coast.