Air Liquide Hydrogen Energy
200 GBC Drive , Newark, Delaware, United States

A world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 66,000 employees and serves more than 3.6 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquides scientific territory and have been at the core of the companys activities since its creation in 1902.   Air Liquides ambition is to be a leader in its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. The companys customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders.   Air Liquides revenue amounted to 21 billion euros in 2018 and its solutions that protect life and the environment represented more than 40% of sales. Air Liquide is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange (compartment A) and belongs to the CAC 40, EURO STOXX 50 and FTSE4Good indexes.

Our Mission

Air Liquide Global Markets & Technologies develop, shape and incubate significant new markets, sustainable for Air Liquide and for the society.  We develop user-focused, innovative and competitive solutions, from the high tech fields(Space, Aerospace, Scientific Research…), to the energy transition territories (Hydrogen Energy, biogas…), with a collaborative spirit and an appetite for entrepreneurship.

Transition to clean energy

As part of its contribution to the energy transition challenge, Air Liquide drives innovation in clean transportation and offers natural energy sources to replace fossil fuels.  advanced Business & Technologies has developed unique expertise in managing the entire hydrogen value chain, as an energy vector for clean transport. Air Liquide is contributing to the emergence of this sector by supporting deployment of the necessary hydrogen stations on a worldwide scale.  We also designs biogas purification solutions and offers multi-energy stations. The biomethane produced can be used as a substitute for natural gas and can be injected directly into the gas distribution network or used as fuel for vehicles.

Why choose us?

Thanks to 15 years experience and our collaboration with Air Liquide, Axane has great fuel cell expertise: from design, to industrialization, production and installation. Axanes team continues to innovate based on learnings from past experiences, to develop ever more efficient systems. Its trial center enables Axane to test and improve its technologies.

aB&T is structured into several entities:

• Advanced Business develops, invests in and implements solutions based on the molecules of the Group and technologies for the customers benefits

• Advanced Technologies provides solutions to state-of-the-art industries and the high tech sector and offers unique expertise in extreme cryogenics

• Advanced Investment (ALIAD) is the Groups investment vehicle which contributes to the growth and competitiveness of Air Liquide by investing in innovative startups.

Fuel Cell

Electrolysis of water consumes electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The fuel cell, which was discovered in 1839, uses the opposite principle. It would be more precise to use the plural—fuel cells—because there are several different kinds. The kind most used to equip vehicles is based on the proton exchange membrane technology (PEM).  The electricity produced by the fuel cell running on hydrogen meets a variety of needs: power supply in an isolated region, emergency power supply for strategic sites, and the direct production of electricity in a vehicle, allowing it run cleanly and quietly.

How it works ?

Fuel cells use H2 (hydrogen) and O2 (oxygen) to generate electricity and heat, emitting only water. The H2 molecule is composed of 2 atoms, each of which contains a positive nucleus, called a proton or H+, and an electron.  Regarding the PEM technology (Proton Exchange Membrane), the electrochemical system contains a membrane inserted between two metallic conduction plates. This polymer membrane only lets H+ protons, the nucleus of hydrogen atoms, pass through.

The protons pass through the membrane and move toward the other side of the cell. The electrons, which cannot pass through this barrier, pass into the electrical circuit. Simultaneously, on the other side of the membrane in contact with a new catalyst, the protons react with the oxygen and the electrons of the circuit, to form water, the fuel cells only by-product.  This clean reaction takes place in each of the basic cells that are combined to constitute an energy module of the desired power. A fuel cell is an assembly of several cells in a series or in parallel in a stack, which makes it possible to obtain different voltages and current output.

Flare gas

Shale gas production in the USA has grown rapidly in recent years but many oil and gas companies dont have adequate infrastructures to carry the gas to market. Flaring excess gas production, although better than just releasing it into the atmosphere, is still an economically and environmentally poor solution.  Air Liquide is working on new, small-scale solutions to recover flare gas directly in the field. The wasted gas can be treated to remove impurities before converting it into CNG or LNG, to be either used as fuel on site or transported off site to another customer. The surplus gas can also be converted into electricity on site to power various equipment.

Its advantages

The output of a fuel cell varies from 30 to 70%. It is generally 50%. This means that 50% of the hydrogen energy is converted into electricity and 50% is converted into heat. The combination of the fuel cell and the electric engine (which also has a high output) is thus more efficient than an internal combustion engine.

• The fuel cell is very quiet. Only the compressor and the ventilation system produce a slight noise. Overall, the fuel cell emits only low noise levels (from about 40 to 50 dB at 1 meter), which is far less than the noise level generated by a normal human conversation (around 60 dB).

• It is made up of elementary cells. Stacked in series or in parallel circuits, they generate an electrical current whose voltage and intensity can be precisely calibrated to the intended use.

• Tests carried out on fuel cells have already shown that their durability is compatible with use in a hydrogen-powered vehicle or for an autonomous stationary application.

• PEM fuel cells consume about 0.8 Nm3 of hydrogen per kWh produced. A car needs 1.6 kilogram of hydrogen for every 100 miles covered.