French gas company Air Liquide inaugurated a $250 million liquid hydrogen facility in North Las Vegas, Nevada, which it stated will serve California and neighboring states.
The facility is designed to create around 30 metric tons (mt) per day of liquid hydrogen from landfill methane. It began operations and customer deliveries in April and pilot runs a year prior.
The production of Air Liquide’s largest liquid hydrogen plant is sufficient to maintain more than 40,000 hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) on California’s roads.
The launch of the plant occurred one month after California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed increasing the state’s requirement for the sale of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), including those fueled by hydrogen fuel cells.
California is the largest market for electric vehicles in the United States, having exceeded the one million sales mark in February. According to the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the state has at least 54 retail hydrogen stations and 121 stations in various phases of development.
“By providing a reliable supply of hydrogen to California’s mobility market and the region’s industrial customers, we are making a significant investment in the transition towards a more sustainable future, one with hydrogen at its core,” Michael Graff, CEO of American Air Liquide Holdings, said in a statement following the launch.
Air Liquide, which has been developing technology throughout the hydrogen supply chain for decades, commenced development on the Las Vegas project in 2020.
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