Air Products (NYSE:APD) plans to spend about $500 million to build a plant in northern New York that would produce 35 metric tons of liquid hydrogen a day for use as vehicle fuel, the company announced Thursday.
The Allentown, Pa.-based industrial gas supplier is siting the facility in Massena, near the New York Power Authority’s St. Lawrence-FDR hydroelectric plant. NYPA has already allocated some of its low-cost power to the proposed green hydrogen plant, which would go online in 2026 or 2027.
Air Products said in a news release that the project budget will rely on incentives from state and local governments and the recently passed federal Inflation Reduction Act.
Liquid hydrogen distribution and dispensing operations are planned beside the production facility. Air Products is also considering construction of a network of hydrogen vehicle fueling stations across the Northeast, in part to fuel its own trucks: The company has committed to converting its roughly 2,000-truck global fleet to zero-emissions vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
“This project is another demonstration of our leadership role in the low-carbon hydrogen and the hydrogen for mobility markets, and New York state’s and IRA incentives will continue to encourage hydrogen’s key role and our investment in the energy transition,” Air Products CEO Seifi Ghasemi said in the news release.
The company said it expects demand for green hydrogen in the Northeast to grow dramatically with New York’s adoption of the federal Advanced Clean Trucks rule and New York’s leadership of a multistate effort to become a designated hub through the federal Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program.