French industrial gases producer Air Liquide has officially started up its new state-of-the-art Steam Methane Reformer (SMR) in Germany's Chempark Dormagen.

The new €100 million unit described by Air Liquide as "highly flexible," has annual capacity for 22,000 t/y of hydrogen and 120,000 t/y of carbon monoxide.

Under a long-term agreement signed in 2012, the gases plant will be the dedicated supplier of carbon monoxide to the new 300,000 t/y plant TDI operated by Bayer MaterialScience at the site. Dormagen is the designated TDI hub for the soon-to-be-spun off engineering plastics producer.

Connected to Air Liquide's 600-km Rhine-Ruhr pipeline, will also supply hydrogen to other provide other customers in the region.