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Air Liquide (Zhangjiagang) Industrial Gases, a subsidiary of French industrial gas major Air Liquide, has installed two distillation columns at its planned 100,000 Nm3/h air separation unit (ASU) in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, China.
The new ASU development, which the company describes as the largest ASU in the global steel industry, is expected to be operational in March 2027.
The company progressed from groundbreaking to completed column installation in six months.
The facility uses Air Liquide’s energy storage technology, which is designed to support the production of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon while minimising carbon emissions.
According to gasworld Intelligence, Air Liquide has supported the metallurgy industry with ASU operations at the Zhangjiagang site since 2006, with a current production capacity of 409 tonnes per day (tpd).
More widely, the company operates five ASUs serving metallurgy customers, with a combined production capacity of 9,590 tpd.
gasworld Intelligence estimates that the metallurgy industry accounts for 12.93% of China’s nitrogen, oxygen, and argon demand, equivalent to 94,179 tpd.
