Air Liquide Continues Progress on Geismar Plant

Air Liquide America Corp. (Houston) has completed about 40% of its new $150-million Geismar, LA, air-separation and cogeneration complex and is on schedule to come onstream this fall. The unit, Air Liquide's largest single US industrial investment, will primarily serve BASF Corp.'s adjacent plant with oxygen, nitrogen and process steam under a long-term contract.

Air Liquide has already completed a majority of the project's civil work, and has erected the facility's major equipment, including its gas turbine and air compressors. It has completed 45% of one of its two air separation units (ASUs), has begun onsite construction of the second. The cogeneration unit, approximately 60% complete, should come on stream about one month before the first ASU begins operation.

When completed, the unit will pump more than 5000 t/d of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases into the company's Baton Rouge-New Orleans pipeline, which connects to BASF's facility. It will also supply liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and argon for merchant distribution. The facility's 80 MW cogeneration plant will power the air separation equipment and supply steam to BASF and neighboring chemical facilities.

"We manage the engineering and construction from conception to the final valve turning," says Ron LaBarre, an Air Liquide VP. "Controlling the process enables us to be very efficient. That is exactly why, on a global scale, we are designing and building more projects with higher capacities than anyone in the industry today."

In addition to Geismar, the company operates facilities in Port Neches, Bayport, and Orange, TX; Ft. Saskatchewan, AB, Canada; and Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

For more information: Air Liquide America Corp., 2700 Post Oak Blvd., Ste. 1800, Houston, TX 77056. Phone: 713-624-8000. Fax: 713-624-8791.