US industrial gases producer Air Products is planning to build a new liquid hydrogen plant at its La Porte, Texas, site to meet increasing demand from “several customer markets.”

The plant, scheduled to go on stream in 2021, will have production capacity of around 30 t/d, drawing hydrogen from the company’s 600-mile Gulf Coast Pipeline (GCP), which it claims is the world’s largest hydrogen plant and pipeline network system.

Liquefied hydrogen will subsequently be delivered in trailers to customers in industries such as electronics, chemicals and petrochemical, along with metals, material handling, float glass, edible fats and oils and utilities.

Air Products has other US liquid hydrogen production plants in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Sacramento, California, as well as at Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. At La Porte, the company operates hydrogen and syngas facilities as and an air separation unit, supplying many major petrochemical producers.

In addition to the GCP, Air Products has a hydrogen pipeline in the US state of California as well as at Sarnia and in Alberta, Canada, along with a pipeline at Rotterdam.