Large Industries

In the refining industry, hydrogen is required in large quantity to crack crude feed into different types of refined fuels and to remove sulfur compounds in the fuels through the processes known as hydrocracking and hydro-desulfuization. Hydrogen consumption varies upon quality of crude oil.

In the metals industry, Air Liquide supplies large volumes of oxygen to steel producers notably, the use of which improves their energy performance and significantly decrease their CO2 emissions. In steel making, the injection of Hydrogen at large scale to partially replace pulverized coal in blast furnaces reduced carbon dioxide emission. 

In the chemical field, nitrogen is commonly used in a great variety of processes such as inerting, blanketing and drying. Largest amount of nitrogen gas is also used in ammonia synthesis, during which hydrogen is catalytically reacted with nitrogen to form anhydrous liquid ammonia.

Oxygen is typically required in the process including oxidation, chlorination, and air enrichment for debottlenecking. However, syngas production unit, notably coal gasification plant, is the largest oxygen consumer. Carbon monoxide application is limited to mostly carbonylation and phosgenation reaction. A common product from carbonylation is acetic acid.