In the race for innovation: electronics and deep tech

Responding to the changing world

While the pandemic locked people indoors, it also unleashed digital technology adoption, as work, study and play all shifted online. According to an annual McKinsey & Co survey¹, consumers and companies made a quantum leap to online channels, accelerating digital interactions by three to four years. Surveyed companies reported being seven years ahead in their switch to digital-enabled products – changes that are expected to stick.

In electronics, this created a surge in demand for hardware, especially computers, tablets and smart TVs, along with higher-capacity, more robust digital infrastructure. Rather than subside, demand remained robust throughout the year as the world adapted to the “new normal”. And despite the disruption to human lives and business processes, electronics manufacturers kept pursuing innovation. During this unprecedented time, Air Liquide continued working alongside global electronics leaders to design and supply the high-purity gases, advanced materials and specialized services needed to manufacture increasingly high-performance technology at an industrial scale. The ongoing challenge is to produce faster, more powerful and feature-rich devices while reducing the financial and environmental costs. This involves ever more complex processes and smaller components, particularly nanometric-scale microchips (as little as 5 nanometers), which require the utmost precision and quality.

To meet these new challenges, Air Liquide can rely on its network of Innovation Campuses and Product Development Labs. With these collaborative resources, the Group invents the kind of customized advanced materials that lead to breakthroughs in industry standards. This is the case, for example, for its enScribe™ range of etching gases, which facilitate the manufacturing of complex 3D memory structures while greatly reducing the environ - mental impact. The use of advanced materials enabled Air Liquide’s key customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 140,000 tons in 2020, and these savings should reach 240,000 tons by 2025.

From space-age technology to the energy transition

The extreme cryogenics technologies developed by Air Liquide for the space industry also serve a diverse range of industries on planet Earth, from industrial manufacturing and transportation to scientific research. One particularly successful application is Turbo-Brayton, originally developed to keep biological samples cold on the International Space Station. In orbit since 2006 without any maintenance, this solution is increasingly popular among shipping companies transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) between producing and consuming countries. Onboard large LNG tankers, it prevents “boil-off” during transport when the gas, cold in its liquid state (-160°C), warms up and partially evaporates (up to 6 metric tons per hour). To limit the financial losses and the negative environmental impact of these “fugitive” CO2 emissions, shippers are increasingly requiring shipowners to fit their ships with preventative systems.

The efficiency and reliability of the Turbo-Brayton solution also opens the door to renewable energy applications. For example, it can be used to liquefy biogas from recovery plants, which produce methane from household, agricultural and industrial waste. In its liquid form, the gas can then be easily transported to its point of use, such as refueling stations for natural gas vehicles. These initiatives have already been introduced in the Nordic countries in Europe. Having sold around 60  units, Air Liquide will enable savings of around 290,000 metric tons of CO2 -equivalent emissions annually, once all units are in operation.

Ultra-low temperatures for new heights in research

Reinforcing its 60 years of experience in extreme cryogenics, in 2020, Air Liquide acquired an 80% stake in Cryoconcept, a French company specializing in ultra-low temperature refrigeration. This acquisition enables the Group to offer temperatures as low as -273.14°C or 0.01°C above absolute zero, which are essential to many areas of scientific research, as well as the operation of the most powerful quantum computers. The Group will also be supporting large-scale research experiments, thanks to a new agreement with the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and the Chinese Academy of Science (HFIPS) to jointly develop and manufacture helium refrigeration systems in China.

Thanks to its technological expertise, Air Liquide is constantly innovating and adapting its solutions to meet the needs of its customers, while opening the path to new markets. This expertise perfectly positions the Group in the race for future growth.