The Linde Group, Munich, Germany, will invest more than $ 200 million to build a large, state-of-the-art air separation unit (ASU), a new gasification train, and supporting equipment and facilities in La Porte, Texas. The ASU will be the largest operated by Linde in the U.S. and the addition of a new gasification plant will create the world’s largest natural gas based partial oxidation complex for the production of syngas products for petrochemicals.
The air gases (oxygen and nitrogen) produced by the new ASU will supply the gasification assets at the La Porte site. The new gasifier will convert natural gas into syngas and constituent products such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide which are used to produce methanol, downstream chemicals and cleaner transportation fuels. In this way Linde will supply syngas products including pipeline delivery to a key customer.
Linde also owns and operates three additional large, partial oxidation facilities that manufacture syngas products using Linde’s world-leading syngas processing technologies and know-how. The new plants are scheduled to come on-stream in the course of 2015.
