Air Products to build new plant in Tennessee, expand manufacturing capacity at Florida facility

May 26, 2023

Air Products is making moves at two manufacturing plants in the southeastern United States.

The Trexlertown industrial giant announced Wednesday it will build, own and operate two air separation units (ASUs) at Eastman Chemical Co.'s facility in Kingsport, Tenn. Air Products will provide Eastman oxygen and nitrogen under long-term agreements, extending their existing partnership at the facility.

Air Products has been supplying Eastman in Kingsport since 1983, when Eastman started up the nation's first coal gasification facility for the purpose of producing chemicals from syngas. The new ASUs replace the ones Air Products built 35 years ago.

The company expects the ASUs to begin operating in early 2021.

"Eastman has been a customer for 3½ decades and we are thrilled to extend this relationship with new long-term agreements," Marie Ffolkes, Air Products’ Americas president, said in a statement. "We strive daily to provide excellent customer service and we believe this extended relationship is a demonstration of that effort."

Earlier this month Air Products also broke ground on an expansion of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) equipment facility in Port Manatee, Fla.

The company opened the facility in 2014 to make LNG heat exchangers, rocket-shaped devices that can span 180 feet and do the work of liquefying natural gas so it can be more easily shipped around the world. In its liquid state, the product takes 1/600th the amount of storage space, making it economical to ship by tanker. Upon delivery, the liquefied natural gas can be "regasified" for use as a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel. A majority of total worldwide LNG is produced with Air Products’ technology.

Air Products previously made the heat exchangers in Luzerne County, but closed that plant last year because of the difficulty of transporting the heat exchangers from that location and a lag in demand for the equipment.

The expansion of the Florida plant will increase manufacturing capacity by 50 percent. The company also recently launched an equipment testing facility there.

Air Products has about 15,000 employees globally, including 2,250 in the Lehigh Valley. The Fortune 500 company had sales of $8.2 billion in fiscal year 2017 and is expected to bring in close to $9 billion in 2018. It will release its year-end earnings next week.

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