Air Products and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards have announced a $4.5 billion blue hydrogen clean energy complex in Eastern Louisiana, marking Air Products' largest-ever investment in the U.S.

Air Products will build, own and operate the megaproject, which will produce over 750 million standard cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of blue hydrogen in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, the company said Oct. 14.

“Blue” products are produced utilizing hydrocarbons as a feedstock, with CO2 in the production process captured for permanent sequestration. A portion of the blue hydrogen will be compressed and supplied to customers by Air Products’ extensive U.S. Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline network, which is the largest hydrogen pipeline system in the world, stretching more than 700 miles from Galveston Bay in Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Today, this vast U.S. Gulf Coast pipeline network can supply customers with more than 1.6 Bcf of hydrogen per day from approximately 25 production facilities, including blue hydrogen from Air Products’ Port Arthur, Texas facility, which has captured approximately one million tons of CO2 annually since 2013 and is transported via pipeline and utilized for enhanced oil recovery operations. 

The balance of the blue hydrogen from the new Ascension Parish facility will be used to make blue ammonia that will be transported around the world and converted back to blue hydrogen for transportation and other markets.

The megaproject is expected to be operational in 2026 and Air Products said it will will also feature the world’s largest instance of CO2 capture for permanent sequestration and produce only environmentally friendly blue products.

Louisiana Governor Edwards  said the project is a "major industrial investment" that will create jobs while limiting environmental impacts.

“Carbon capture and sequestration are important to Louisiana’s efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while maintaining jobs and growing our manufacturing base. This project is a clear demonstration of our ability to grow the Louisiana economy while lowering the carbon footprint of industry," he said.

Air Products Chairman, President and CEO Seifi Ghasemi commented, “This landmark megaproject will not only create jobs but make Louisiana and Ascension Parish leaders in the U.S. clean energy transition. Air Products is fully invested in and committed to projects that leverage our build-own-operate, technology, financial, and sustainability capabilities, and this project brings all of those core strengths together." 

Approximately 95% of the CO2 generated at the facility will be captured, compressed and transported safely by pipeline to multiple inland sequestration sites located along a pipeline corridor extending up to 35 miles to the east of the new production facility. Over five million metric tons per year of CO2 will be permanently sequestered in geologic pore space secured from the State of Louisiana approximately one mile beneath the surface. Air Products has already received approval from the State Mineral and Energy Board, which is part of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, for the permanent sequestration of the CO2. 

This new Louisiana clean energy megaproject announcement follows Air Products’ announcement in June 2021 of a multi-billion-dollar net-zero hydrogen energy complex in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and its previous announcement of the green ammonia production facility joint venture in NEOM, Saudi Arabia powered by renewable energy for the production and export of carbon-free hydrogen to global markets.