French industrial gases group Air Liquide has agreed to supply Methanex with oxygen, nitrogen and utilities for the upcoming methanol expansion in Geismar, Louisiana, USA.

Air Liquide will invest more than $270 million to build two air separation units and infrastructure that will be connected to its Mississippi River Pipeline, serving both Methanex and other customers in Geismar and Baton Rouge.

The two units will each have a capacity of 2,500 t/d, lifting Air Liquide’s capacity along the pipeline by more than 25%. Production is anticipated to start in mid-2022 – the Geismar 3 methanol plant is due online in the second half of 2022.

Methanex gave the nod last month for contractor KBR to begin work on detailed engineering, procurement and construction of its third methanol plant, which will have a capacity of 1.8 million t/y.

Air Liquide said the investment also enhances its competitiveness by modernizing its assets and increasing energy efficiency, further reducing its operational carbon footprint and contributing toward the group’s 2025 climate objectives.

Michael Graff, Air Liquide’s executive vice president and executive committee member, said: “Air Liquide’s significant investment to support this new endeavor by Methanex and enhance our infrastructure in the Geismar Basin further demonstrates our global commitment to energy efficiency, our collaborative approach to meeting the needs of customers, and highlights our outlook for the robust growth of industry in the Gulf Coast region of the US.”

In separate news, Air Liquide has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Norwegian energy group Equinor (formerly Statoil) and its partners Shell and Total to explore collaboration in their Northern Lights CO₂ capture and storage project.

Equinor (then as Statoil) started in June 2017 to evaluate the development of carbon storage on the Norwegian continental shelf, as part of Norway’s efforts to develop full-scale carbon capture and storage.

The site, which is scheduled to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023, would be the first in the world to receive CO₂ from several industrial sources in several European countries.