The magazine of the Air Liquide Group

Air Liquide was present at VivaTech with a booth located at heart of the Hall of Tech. Health, green tech, food, safety, and employee integration: a great opportunity to discover the potential of Tech4Good (innovation for the common good) by testing the technologies developed by four start-ups, partners of Air Liquide, and by experiencing numerous pitches given by Group experts, start-ups and partners.

In March 2017, as part of its effort to become a leader in customer satisfaction in its industry, Air Liquide launched the digital platform, Voice of the Customer, to collect and analyze customer reviews in real time throughout the world. Read our interview with Godfrey Mthembu, an Air Liquide customer in South Africa.

Each day, human activity produces over 10 billion kilos of waste around the world. At a time when the energy transition is a key concern of governments, society and industry, Air Liquide is recycling organic material from farming or from household or industrial waste to convert it into biomethane, a clean and renewable alternative energy source.

Air Liquide’s R&D experts work hand in hand with the business teams. Aude Bertrandias, an engineer at the Paris Innovation Campus, and Benjamin Fillion, Biomethane Operations and Projects director in the United Kingdom, tell us how they work together to optimize the production of clean energy derived from organic matter. This example of cooperation shows how diversity of view points is a source of collective intelligence that accelerates innovation to serve the customer.

Efficient, simple, customized: a successful customer experience lies in these three words. It is a core objective of Air Liquide’s strategy, which relies on leveraging the power of digital to offer its customers and patients a first class experience.

As a result of the popularity of online orders for fresh or frozen products, urban deliveries are on the increase. Considered to be noisy and dirty, they have become a major issue for online sales and refrigerated transport companies, which also have to comply with increasingly strict environmental standards.

Thermo Fisher Scientific develops high-quality analytical and calibration equipment for applications in geochemistry, life sciences, food product traceability, sports doping, and also research on climate change. The leading analytical instrument manufacturer recently teamed up with Air Liquide to supply customers with stable isotope gases.

In 2016, Somie Kim took on a new role as Head of the Hydrogen Energy activity in South Korea. Her mission: "to change the face of the Korean automotive industry through the deployment of hydrogen stations." Since then, she has been working in partnership with Hyundai and represents Air Liquide in a public-private consortium dedicated to this matter.

T17 is the world's largest oxygen production unit, owned and operated by Air Liquide for Sasol in South Africa. As the Plant Manager, Bertus Swart was responsible for ensuring the startup of this state-of-the-art plant, with a total production capacity of 5,000 metric tons of oxygen per day. His secret? “Go beyond set goals, explore different approaches, be open to new ideas and support my team with a creative mind.”

In a rapidly changing world, detecting customers’ needs is key to anticipate products and services that will meet their challenges—whether they be to gain efficiency, improve the user experience or reduce the environmental impact of their activities.This is the reason why Air Liquide collaborates with more than 100 start-ups around the world, across all its businesses.

In 2018, Air Liquide signed a new contract with its long-standing strategic customer Covestro, a leading global supplier of high-tech polymer materials. The Group will produce hydrogen directly on Covestro’s site in Antwerp (Belgium) using its state of the art SMR-X™ technology. It will allow for hydrogen production while offering increased energy efficiency and a reduced carbon footprint. The unit will start operations in 2020.

In September 2018 in Hobro, Denmark, Air Liquide inaugurated HyBalance, a pilot site for the production of carbon-free hydrogen. This unit’s specificity is that it uses electrolysis technology which allows it to balance the electricity grid and store surplus electricity in the form of hydrogen that will be used in industry and transportation. This project was initiated in 2016 in a country that is pioneering the energy transition.