May 12, 2008

Lehigh Valley, PA - Air Products , and its subsidiary Air Products Canada Ltd., recently announced the commercialization of its new hydrogen plant producing in excess of 100 million standard-cubic-feet-per-day (MMSCFD) to serve the Petro-Canada refinery near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and other customers in the Alberta Heartlands industrial corridor. Air Products owns and operates the hydrogen and steam generating facility, the largest outsourced hydrogen production plant in Canada, and serves its customers under long-term agreements.

"We are pleased to expand our relationship with Petro-Canada in this important oil sands region," said Alex Masetti, vice president, Tonnage Gases North America for Air Products. "We will continue to invest to serve the growing industrial gas needs of upgraders, refiners and other industrial customers in Canada."

The newly commercialized facility is the second to be constructed by Air Products to supply hydrogen to Petro-Canada's refinery, as well as several additional customers in the Edmonton area. An earlier facility was successfully placed on-stream in June 2006. The two inter-connected hydrogen facilities are part of Petro-Canada's Refinery Conversion Project that will allow the Edmonton Refinery to run entirely on oil sands feedstock. The project is scheduled for completion in 2008 and will process bitumen from the company's oil sands holdings, along with other oil sands feedstock, into 135,000 barrels per day of refined products.

Oil sands are composed of bitumen, sand, water, and clay, and must be physically separated prior to further processing. The separated bitumen is processed into synthetic crude oil. With the addition of hydrogen, the synthetic crude oil is then further refined into value-added products like gasoline and diesel fuel.

"The Alberta Industrial Heartland is an area that will continue to grow in hydrogen demand as more oil sands crude is processed. Refiners need a dependable supply of hydrogen to maximize production of fuels, and Air Products is recognized in this industry for the reliable and safe production of hydrogen," said Steve Losby, general manager - Canada for Air Products. Air Products' three hydrogen facilities now operating in Canada are the first third-party on-purpose production facilities serving Canadian refineries.

The new hydrogen facility was built under the global alliance between Air Products and Technip. This alliance continues to provide the worldwide refining industry with competitive technology, plus world-class safety with "over the fence" hydrogen supply. Technip provides the design and construction for hydrogen generation units while Air Products provides the gas separation technology. Air Products, through its extensive operating network, and Technip, from its large reference base, also bring effective operational and engineering knowledge to "design-in" high reliability and efficiency. The plants are operated and maintained by Air Products under long-term agreements with customers.

SOURCE: Air Products