Air Products buys another gasification business, builds plant for Eastman

After buying Shell’s gasification business earlier this year, Air Products & Chemicals has now agreed to buy the one owned by General Electric. The business includes GE’s 50% stake in a synthesis gas joint venture with China’s Shenhua Coal to Liquid & Chemical and over 1,000 patents. GE’s gasification technology has been deployed at 240 gasifiers at 90 different sites. Air Products has been active in China in recent years, providing syngas technology used to turn coal into chemicals. Separately, Air Products has agreed to rebuild 35-year-old air separation units that supply oxygen and nitrogen to an Eastman Chemical coal gasification facility in Kingsport, Tenn.