Air Products Opens Helium Production Facility In Doe Canyon, Colorado
08/19/2015
"Today celebrates an accomplishment that has not been achieved before. We are capturing an important molecule—that being helium—from a naturally occurring stream of carbon dioxide provided by this site's host Kinder Morgan, who I would like to thank for their cooperation with this venture," said Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products' Chairman/President/CEO. "In doing so, our company takes another step forward to maintain the leading position we have earned in this industry and to help to ensure Air Products continues to build on the helium market leadership established and enhanced over many decades."
Much of the helium produced in the United States today comes from the United States Bureau of Land Management system, however, the BLM system is in decline, and eventually that storage supply will be depleted.
At the same time, the world's demand for helium is likely to continue to grow and is why new sources of helium are needed. The purified helium at the new Colorado facility will be liquefied on-site for subsequent delivery to Air Products' customers. The plant is expected to produce up to 230 million standard cubic feet of helium per year, replacing more than 15 percent of the current BLM reserve helium supply as that system declines.
"People often talk about 'thinking outside-the-box', and that is really the case in this instance. This is not just another liquid helium plant, we're using cutting edge technology to extract and produce helium that would have otherwise been lost. Bringing the Doe Canyon helium plant on-stream is just one more step in a series of steps that we've taken in order to become the most reliable supplier of helium to our customers around the world," said Corning Painter, Air Products' executive vice president and general manager of Industrial Gases.
Air Products' Colorado facility will use a new technology process to produce pure helium from the CO2 stream. Kinder Morgan, operator of the Doe Canyon Unit, supplies this CO2 to the Permian Basin in West Texas, where the CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery. Air Products will extract the helium and return the CO2 to Kinder Morgan for its intended EOR use.
Project Announcements
Titan Mechanical Plans Defiance, Ohio, Fabrication Operations
06/12/2025
Ireland-Based Linde Plans Brownsville, Texas, Operations
06/12/2025
Canadian-Based Torvan Medical Plans High Point, North Carolina, Headquarters-Production Operations
06/12/2025
Amazon Web Services Plans Richmond County, North Carolina, Operations
06/12/2025
Rolls-Royce Expands Mankato, Minnesota, Manufacturing Operations
06/12/2025
StandardAero Component Services Expands Sharonville, Ohio, MRO Operations
06/12/2025
Most Read
-
First Person: Joe Capes, CEO, LiquidStack
Q2 2025
-
The Legal Limits of DEI in Incentives Agreements, Hiring, and Contracting
Q2 2025
-
39th Annual Corporate & 21st Annual Consultants Surveys: What Business Leaders and Consultants Are Saying About Site Selection
Q1 2025
-
Top States for Doing Business in 2024: A Continued Legacy of Excellence
Q3 2024
-
Get Your Mega Site ‘Project Ready’
Q2 2025
-
Navigating the new era of SCIF construction
Q1 2025
-
Why Cold Storage May Defy the Tariff Crunch
Q2 2025