Industrial Merchant

At work in everything going on around us

Air Liquide’s Industrial Merchant business line serves more than 2 million industrial customers worldwide, from craftsmen to large companies in sectors as diverse as food and beverage, steelmaking, energy, chemical, automotive, construction and aeronautics. The Group offers comprehensive, innovative industrial gas solutions, including advanced technologies, equipment and related services.

  • 2 million customers worldwide

  • 20+ M Air Liquide cylinders in circulation worldwide

  • 33,000 employees representing 50% of the Group's workforce

  • Every 12 seconds somewhere in the world Air Liquide delivers liquid gas to a customer

Innovating with impact to meet the challenges of tomorrow

Present in a wide variety of markets, Air Liquide is in a privileged position to observe trends and detect new needs and uses.

Drawing on the infinite potential of essential small molecules, Industrial Merchant employees are constantly inventing new gas applications that contribute to our customers' operational efficiency and address the challenges of energy transition as well as those of new markets.

  • In-depth knowledge of industrial processes

    Improving product quality, increasing competitiveness and reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes: these are Air Liquide's priorities for its customers. Discover some examples.

  • Additive manufacturing, a growing market

    Additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) consists in manufacturing parts in volume by adding material in successive layers. It has exceptional advantages: shortened development time, realization of complex designs, flexibility, weight savings... Gases (such as argon, nitrogen) allow the atomization of powders or ensure the protection of materials against oxidation and humidity.
     

  • Water treatment, a response to environmental issues

    Biological treatment with oxygen allows to increase the capacity of wastewater treatment plants without additional works. The injection of CO2 allows the treatment of alkaline effluents avoiding the use of strong acids and their by-products. Ozone allows to fight against persistent pollution and micropollutants.

  • Food, for safer products

    One example among many applications in the sector is food cryogenics, which offers unparalleled cold power. It is a key technology for preserving the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of food, for maintaining food safety during production and transportation under controlled temperatures, and also for facilitating certain manufacturing processes, such as slicing, forming or encapsulation operations.

  • Glass, the oxycombustion solution

    The glass industry faces the dual challenge of limiting its energy consumption and its polluting emissions. Oxycombustion consists of increasing the oxygen concentration of the air used during combustion, to make it more efficient. Air Liquide's HeatOx™ technology has the unique feature of reusing the heat produced by the production process to preheat the oxygen and natural gas (methane) upstream. This process allows glass manufacturers to reduce both their oxygen and gas consumption, CO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions.

  • Automotive, the electric revolution

    The programmed end of combustion engine car production and the advent of the electric car constitute an unprecedented revolution requiring rapid adaptations. Air Liquide is supporting the players in the battery ecosystem in understanding the role of gases throughout the value chain. From raw material extraction to recycling, through electrode production and cell assembly, it is the entire ecosystem to which we deploy our gas supply solutions.
“

Air Liquide's Industrial Merchant selective innovation propels the next, enabling us to help every industry to meet modern life challenges and growing new usages.

”

Matthieu Giard

Vice President, Member of the Executive Committee supervising the Industrial Merchant business line

An activity that relies on the power of digital

Perceived very early on as a formidable performance lever, digital technology is now increasingly integrated into our offers and our day-to-day working methods. This evolution has been carried out in a few years at all levels: production, logistics, customer sites, sales, safety on board our trucks.

Automation of the preparation of orders

Our first robotized order-picking line at a gas cylinder packaging plant was launched in 2019 in Feyzin, France. Direct benefits: operational efficiencies, a significant improvement in service quality and less handling for operators.
 

24/7 gas ordering and management

Either on a computer, a tablet or a smartphone, our customers in Europe (13 countries) have a safe access to our platform to order their gas easily, manage their account or find the nearest distributor.
 

Convenience and connectivity with Qlixbi

Designed with and for welders, Qlixbi combines a new generation gas cylinder with an easy-to-use "Weld in just a click" connector. The offer integrates a range of digital services to facilitate the daily supply and management of cylinder stocks for customers.
 

Learn more about Qlixbi

Providing a multi-channel customer experience

In the United States, our subsidiary Airgas offers a unique approach that combines a network of more than 900 retail points of sale throughout the country, sales and telesales teams, an e-procurement platform and the Airgas.com e-commerce portal. These are ways to help our associates offer the customer the best possible service: efficient, simple and fast.
 

Optimizing our supply chain

Launched in 2017, the Integrated Bulk Operations program aims to connect all assets in the liquid gas supply chain (customer storage, delivery trucks... ) in order to collect data to better serve our customers (forecasting their consumption), optimize our operations (truck routes) and participate in reducing our carbon footprint.

Learn more about IBO

€11,567 M revenue in 2022

40% of Gas & Services revenue in 2022