Linde North America has begun production at one of its newest plants, which makes carbon dioxide (CO2) from ethanol in Fulton, N.Y.
Linde North America is a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company. The new 600 ton-per-day CO2 plant is located at the Sunoco ethanol plant, housed in a former brewery in the Riverview Business Park, some 25 miles north of Syracuse.
“This plant enhances our ability to provide a reliable supply of CO2 to our customers in the Northeast. Linde now has the largest CO2 production capacity in the region – over 1200 tons a day,” said Pat Murphy, president, Linde North America.
Sunoco’s Fulton plant is the largest ethanol plant in the Northeast, using some 41 million bushels of corn, much of it grown locally, as feedstock to produce approximately 100 million gallons of ethanol a year. More than 65 workers are employed by Sunoco, Linde and the project’s other on-site partner-suppliers.
Michael G. McKee, general manager of Sunoco’s ethanol business, said, “Sunoco’s partnership with Linde is good for the environment and the local economy. Capturing, processing, and re-selling CO2 will mean more jobs for the local economy and further position our ethanol facility as one of the nation’s cleanest and greenest.”
Linde’s plant, which produces CO2 for use in food, beverage and chemical manufacturing, captures CO2 emissions from the ethanol plant that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere. Linde purifies and liquefies the CO2 for sale to customers located throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England.
Adding this plant means Linde’s extensive East Coast network of CO2 rail depots will now be supplied from a local plant, while still maintaining backup supply from points south and farther west. This plant is the latest addition to Linde’s network of more than 30 CO2 plants around the U.S.
CO2 comes from a variety of sources including ethanol plants, oil refineries, ammonia plants and natural wells. U.S. cleaner fuels legislation has boosted the growth of fuel ethanol production for use as a gasoline additive.
The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 48,000 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2009 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 11.2 billion (USD 15.3 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
