Air Products has officially published its 2024 Sustainability Report named “Generating a Cleaner Future” – which is focused on detailing the company’s progress against its existing sustainability goals. The report further marks the introduction of more such goals, while simultaneously highlighting the company’s ongoing clean hydrogen megaprojects around the world. Not just that, it also showcases the ways in which its industrial gases and applications expertise enable customers to improve productivity and reduce environmental impact. More on the same would reveal how the lowdown in question delivers at the disposal of stakeholders a comprehensive piece covering economic, environmental and social performance data, which is understood to be in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards “Core” option. But what do the results relay on a deeper level? Well, they begin by informing us that Air Products has decided to update the baseline year for its “Third by ’30” carbon intensity goals for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2015 to 2023. However, the company’s target of achieving these goals by 2030 remains unchanged, making the given objectives more ambitious. Next up, Air Products took this opportunity to reveal how it has committed to quadruple the amount of renewable energy typically used in making its products, and it is again looking to do so by 2030, as compared to the 2023 baseline. To give you some context, the stated goal effectively exceeds the pledge made by world leaders at United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 to “triple up” renewables by 2030. Moving on, the sustainability report in question further awarded us an insight into Air Products’ vision of developing water management plans by 2026 for high-priority facilities in water-stressed areas, with their implementation penciled in to happen by 2030.
Markedly enough, Air Products’ report would also go on to highlight several of the company’s world-scale clean hydrogen projects that are all focused on supporting the world’s energy transition. For instance, Air Products revealed that the world’s largest green hydrogen plant: The NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, a joint venture of ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM, is executing a world-scale green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Upon reaching the onstream stage, this facility will supply 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen for industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Next up, Air Products dug into its Louisiana clean energy complex, which is expected to produce over 750 million standard cubic feet per day of low-carbon hydrogen, with a portion supplied to customers along Air Products’ U.S. Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline network and the remainder used to produce blue ammonia for global markets. Once onstream, this complex will capture, compress, and transport over five million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), and it will do so through a pipeline for permanent sequestration. Joining the list here is Air Products’ net-zero hydrogen energy complex which will make Edmonton, Alberta, Canada the center of western Canada’s hydrogen economy. In essence, such an energy complex can be expected to produce 165 million standard cubic feet per day of low-carbon hydrogen and deploy advanced technology that enables carbon capture for permanent sequestration. Furthermore, in order to avoid the indirect emissions associated with using electrical power from the grid, the complex includes a 100 percent hydrogen-fueled power generation unit.
All in all, the clean hydrogen produced by these megaprojects will help the world, over their lifetime, avoid 250 to 500 million metric tonnes of CO2e, depending on the mix of hydrogen applications.
“During this past year, Air Products has strengthened our previously announced environmental goals and with this report, we are also launching new goals for renewable energy and water management. We have worked collaboratively with our customers across dozens of industries while advancing our world-scale, first-mover clean hydrogen projects to help decarbonize industry and heavy-duty transportation,” said Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman, President and CEO of Air Products.
