ALTERNATIVE FUELS
Praxair could be big supplier of liquid hydrogen for cars
NIAGARA FALLS — Praxair began “thinking green” at its Niagara Falls facility long before global warming became a common term in the United States.
The company started making liquid hydrogen — much heralded for its potential as an environmentally friendly fuel — in the Cataract City after breaking ground here in 1980.
After a major expansion nine years later, Praxair continues to turn an industrial byproduct from nearby chemical plants into a commodity used in various industries, including steel, glass, pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals.
“We continue to make a high-quality product. We intend to be there a long time from now, as well,” said Maureen C. Fama, a spokeswoman for the Danbury, Conn.-based company.
Two nearby chemical facilities sell Praxair the hydrogen gas they produce as a byproduct of their operations.
The potential for hydrogen fuel is viewed as important because vehicles powered by hydrogen burn cleaner and are more efficient than those using gasoline.
But there are challenges. It would take about $55 billion over the next 15 years to make hydrogen-fueled cars common by 2050, according to a National Research Council of the National Academies study reported by the Associated Press in July.
At the Niagara Falls site, hydrogen gas arrives at Praxair via underground pipelines, said Fred Ranck, plant manager.
“We get it as a gas, we remove trace impurities and then we liquify,” Ranck said, outlining the production process.
The process is energy intensive, running various equipment that cools and compresses the gas.
Much of the energy used in production is needed for cooling the hydrogen, the second coldest gas in the world, down to minus 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
The gas the Royal Avenue plant receives is about 98.9 percent pure, company representatives said. Oxygen and nitrogen are among what’s extracted before the substance is liquified and sold.
When the system’s running perfectly, the plant can make 40 tons of liquid hydrogen a day.
The Niagara Falls facility is actually two independent plants, which each perform the same operations and can be used interchangeably, if needed, or both at once, Ranck said.
In all, about 99 percent of all the electricity used at the plant is in the production process, company officials said. The system is extremely reliable and extremely efficient, Ranck said.
“We don’t waste anything here,” he said.
The plant, which is the largest of Praxair’s four hydrogen production facilities in the United States and the second-largest liquid hydrogen plant in the country, employs about 90 people.
The company’s other hydrogen-making plants are in Ontario, Calif.; McIntosh, Ala., and East Chicago, Ind.
But making liquid hydrogen isn’t the only thing the plant does. In fact, it’s only about 4 percent of everything produced at the facility, which draws in air from the atmosphere, separates it into oxygen, nitrogen and argon and sells them as liquids.
The plant employs about 40 drivers, who haul tanks up and down the East Coast, including to New England and Virginia, and occasionally to the West Coast.
In July 2006, the company announced it was renovating nearly 30,000 square feet at its Town of Tonawanda facility for a new engineering and design operation, in part due to a surge in demand for gases the company produces, including hydrogen.
Praxair employs 1,130 people at its Tonawanda site.
Besides from gaseous hydrogen, there are other ways to produce liquid hydrogen, including using natural gas. But the plant would have to be reconfigured if another source had to be used, Ranck said.
New uses of liquid hydrogen are being studied, but none is at a point where anything about them could be disclosed, the company said.
“I just hope that our two suppliers won’t go away,” Ranck said.
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