Air Liquide has laid the "first stone" of a new hydrogen plant following the signature of a long-term agreement with Zhejiang Huafon Spandex to supply hydrogen for its 120,000 tons per year cyclohexanone project located in Liaoyang Aromatics and Fine Chemical Park, Liaoyang city, Liaoning province, China.

Cyclohexanone is a key ingredient in the creation of nylon.

Under the terms of the agreement, Air Liquide will invest in a new Steam Methane Reformer (SMR) unit that will supply 13,000 Nm3/hour of hydrogen as well as steam to Huafon via pipelines.

This new unit, which is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2013, uses Lurgi's latest technologies providing high reliability, world class safety and energy efficiency and will be designed and manufactured by the Air Liquide Engineering and Construction team based in Shanghai.

This hydrogen plant will be the third largest operated by Air Liquide and its subsidiaries in China.

In January this year, a large hydrogen unit was started mainly to supply Bayer MaterialScience in Shanghai.