Gas corporation expands on innovation and sustainability

Air Liquide, a world-leading supplier of industrial and medical gases and relevant technologies and services, continues to develop in the Chinese market. The company has made great strides in innovation, sustainable development and promotion of the country's electronics industry.

"Air Liquide entered China in 1916. Today, it operates nearly 90 plants in more than 40 cities and employs more than 4,000 staff members in the country," said Nicolas Poirot, CEO of Air Liquide China.

While Air Liquide China traditionally has had a strong presence in the country's key coastal industrial areas, it has been steadily expanding into the country's central, southern and western regions.

Poirot emphasized that innovation is part of Air Liquide's core strategy and is deeply rooted in its corporate culture with its foundation built on science, technology, customer experience and the incubation of new activities.

Adding some 300 new patents every year, Air Liquide holds more than 11,000 innovative proprietary technologies so far.

With a focus on innovation, Air Liquide established the Shanghai Innovation Campus in 2016, to address environmental and social challenges, targeting clean utilization of energy, industrial energy-saving and emissions reduction, urban air quality, food preservation and digitalization.

Poirot also highlighted the corporate social responsibility objectives of the campus, leveraging Air Liquide's innovative solutions and global research and development networks to carry out extensive technological exchanges in China to support local innovation development.

"Thanks especially to innovation, we've been working for a long time to combine growth and respect for the environment. Air Liquide's ambition is to lead its industry, delivering long-term performance and contributing to sustainability," Poirot noted.

The company's commitment seeks not only to reduce the carbon intensity of its activities, but also to work with its customers toward a sustainable industry and to contribute to the development of a low-carbon society.

Air Liquide is committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its activities by 30 percent by 2025, compared to that of 2015.

The company's focus on the development of advanced technologies has also enabled its customers to improve the energy efficiency of their industrial processes and reduce emissions.

One such example is the development of biomethane and hydrogen for the industry and transport, an initiative that has also supported Air Liquide's commitment to contributing to a low-carbon society.

Air Liquide operates 15 production plants of biomethane worldwide, generating power to inject into local grids and fueling vehicles through the company's bionatural-gas stations.

It has also developed hydrogen energy solutions as a response to the challenges of clean transportation and pollution in cities - reducing greenhouse gases and the dependency on fossil fuels.

To date, Air Liquide has built and installed more than 120 hydrogen stations for clean transportation worldwide, contributing to cleaner mobility.

As a partner of semiconductor, flat screen and solar cell manufacturers, Air Liquide has gained an increasingly strong presence in China's electronics industry.

Since it launched its electronics business in China in the late 1980s, Air Liquide has shared its technologies, expertise and experiences with an increasing number of customers from the country's semiconductor, flat panel display and photovoltaic industries. They include chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup, display panel manufacturer BOE and Shenzhen-based China Star Optoelectronics Technology.

Air Liquide is also accelerating investment in electronics specialty materials and advanced materials in China, aiming to develop a local materials supply chain with high-level safety, quality and reliability, so as to support the success of Chinese customers in the electronics market.

Founded in France in 1902, Air Liquide has developed into a global leading supplier of gases, technology and services for industry and health, with more than 60,000 employees working to support more than 3.6 million customers.

zhangdandan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/05/2019 page6)