US industrial gases producer Air Products and Danish high-performance catalyst specialist Haldor Topsoe have agreed a global alliance to collaborate on large-scale ammonia, methanol and/or dimethyl ether plants, using their extensive market network outreach and expertise to develop new projects.

Through the agreement, Air Products will gain access to Topsoe’s technology license(s) and the supply of certain engineering design, equipment, high-performance catalysts and technical services for the plants the gases producer will build, own and operate for customers.

The Topsoe technology will be integrated into many of Air Products’ own technologies, used among other things for gasification of various feedstocks and synthesis gas processes, among them the company’s recently announced world-scale coal-to-methanol production facility in Bengalon, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Under the long-term on-site contract, Bakrie Capital Indonesia, part of the Bakrie Group, and Ithaca Resources, part of AP Investment, will supply the coal feedstock and offtake the methanol. Air Products will invest about $2 billion in the facility to produce 2 million t/y of methanol from 2024.

Additionally, the US gases producer’s world-scale Gulf Coast Ammonia plant in Texas City, Texas, USA, announced in January 2020, will benefit from the technology agreement. For this project, Air Products will supply hydrogen and nitrogen for the ammonia production in part from its largest-ever steam methane reformer.

The latter project, worth $500 million, will showcase Air Products’ core strengths and capabilities supplying hydrogen from an SMR and nitrogen from an ASU, said Seifi Ghasemi, chairman, president and CEO of Air Products.