Air Products Constructs New Air Separation Units at Southern Facilities

Air Products will build, own, and operate two new air separation units (ASU) at facilities in Conyers, GA, and Reidsville, NC. These units, scheduled for operation in 2026, will replace older ASUs and provide additional capacity onsite. The projects will advance the operational flexibility of Air Products’ industrial gas business.

“Conyers and Reidsville have attractive customer markets that Air Products has served for nearly five decades,” said Francesco Maione, Americas President, Air Products. “The ASU assets at these locations have served Air Products well, and its customers reliably. Now is the time to install new ASUs, which will have an even greater level of reliability, production, sustainability efficiencies, and additional market growth.”

Industrial gas products manufactured at Conyers and Reidsville will include liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, and liquid argon to supply the region’s merchant markets. The facilities will serve customer markets such as chemicals, food, metals processing and fabrication, primary materials, and electronics.

“Air Products is committed to its base industrial gas business, evidenced by the investment in these two new ASUs,” said Maione. “We can ensure enhanced product reliability to regional customers as these new units can act as back-ups to each other, as well as for other company facilities producing the same products in neighboring and nearby states.”

Air separation units in Chandler, AZ; Image Credits: Air Products

Last week, Honeywell acquired Air Products’ LNG business portfolio, including its in-house design and manufacturing of coil-wound heat exchangers (CWHE) and associated equipment. Following the all-cash transaction valued at $1.81 billion, Honeywell’s offerings include natural gas pre-treatment and liquefaction services supported by its digital automation technologies—the Honeywell Forge and Experion platforms. The purchase establishes a full-service solution for efficient, optimized management of natural gas assets.

Air Products’ CWHEs provide high throughput of natural gas in a small footprint, enabling safe and reliable operations onshore and offshore. The business, headquartered in Allentown, PA, has approximately 475 employees and a 390,000-square-foot CWHE manufacturing site in Port Manatee, FL.

In June 2024, TotalEnergies and Air Products entered a 15-year agreement, starting in 2030, for the annual delivery of 70,000 tons of green hydrogen to Europe. Air Products will leverage its global hydrogen supply network to remove approximately 700,000 annual tons of CO₂ from TotalEnergies’ northern European refineries—the deal follows the company’s call for tenders to supply 500,000 tons of green hydrogen per year for the decarbonization project.

The supply will assist TotalEnergies’ goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions—Scope 1 and 2—from its oil and gas operations by 40% by 2030. The company plans to cut the carbon footprint of producing, converting, and supplying energy to customers by using green and low-carbon hydrogen at European refineries. This decarbonization initiative, with assistance from additional hydrogen suppliers, may reduce TotalEnergies’ CO₂ emissions by approximately five million tons per year.

Air Products’ Membrane Solutions business released the PRISM GreenSep LNG membrane separator in May 2024, which can be applied to bio-LNG production and increases yield, reduces operational expenses, and lowers energy consumption. The new membrane separator eliminates intermediate purification technologies, such as amine scrubbing and thermal swing adsorption, required to produce bio-LNG, which is liquefied biomethane derived from food, animal, or municipal waste.