Industrial Gas Giant’s Clean Hydrogen Projects in Jeopardy

Industrial Gas Giant’s Clean Hydrogen Projects in Jeopardy

A leading global supplier of industrial gases is emphasizing two of what were originally six federally backed hydrogen projects amid questions about the future of the funding under the Trump administration.

Air Liquide, the French industrial gas provider and the parent of Airgas, was selected to be part of the development of six clean hydrogen hubs by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2023 — and was slated to receive $7 billion under a sweeping infrastructure funding law signed in 2021,

That funding, however, was frozen by the new Trump administration, and it remains unclear when — or if — the congressionally approved allocations will be issued.

Air Liquide CEO François Jackow told reporters on a recent call that two of the six projects appear more likely to move forward than the other four. The two hubs in question would produce hydrogen from natural gas while capturing the resulting carbon emissions, Jackow said. Air Liquide and oil and gas giant ExxonMobil continue to work on a low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia project at the latter’s Baytown, Texas, plant, although its fate also has not been decided “absolutely.”

The remaining projects, he said, were more likely to depend on the administration’s policies toward renewable energy overall.

Although the changes in Washington appear likely to dent Air Liquide’s hydrogen operations in the U.S., Jackow was more optimistic about its other investments in the country, which include supplying gases to forthcoming semiconductor fabs and electric vehicle battery plants. He added that newly imposed tariffs were unlikely to have much of an effect on its businesses in the U.S.

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