The Advocate – Ted Griggs – Industrial gas company Praxair Inc. will spend close to $150 million to build a syngas processing plant at BASF’s campus in Geismar, under an agreement announced Wednesday.
Praxair will design, build, own and operate the plant, which will start up in 2020. The plant will produce high-purity carbon monoxide and hydrogen from a stream of crude synthesis gas. Carbon monoxide is a raw material in the production of a range of specialty chemicals used in the housing and auto industries. Hydrogen is used to produce several chemical intermediates and clean fuels from refineries.
The syngas plant is the second production facility Praxair has announced in the past two years. In April 2016, Praxair said it was spending more than $100 million to add a new carbon monoxide purification unit at its Geismar plant. The expansion, expected to be complete in 2018, will boost Praxair’s carbon monoxide production capacity by 13 million cubic feet per year.
Praxair did not disclose the total investment in the new plant. However, the company said the new plant and the previously announced carbon monoxide unit represent an investment of about $250 million. These investments, including pipeline expansions, support growing customer demand and boost supply reliability in the Mississippi River chemical corridor, Praxair said.
Based in Danbury, Connecticut, Praxair is one of the largest industrial gas companies with more than 26,000 employees worldwide and 2016 sales of $11 billion.