Praxair Starts Up CO2 Purification Facility

Praxair has fired up its carbon dioxide purification facility at the Honeywell Resins & Chemicals site in Hopewell, Va.

Under a long-term agreement, Praxair will purchase CO2 from Honeywell Resins & Chemicals, one of the world’s largest producers of nylon resin and caprolactam, a critical feedstock used for nylon production. The agreement expands Praxair’s business relationship with Honeywell.

Praxair’s new facility purifies and liquefies up to 450 tons per day of CO2, a byproduct of the production process at Honeywell’s caprolactam facility. The CO2 supply will help Praxair serve customers in a variety of industries, including food and beverage, where it is used to freeze, chill, preserve and package food and carbonate beverages. It is also used in the healthcare, oil recovery, metal fabrication, chemicals and wastewater segments.

In September, UK grocery chain Sainsbury’s announced it was working with transport refrigeration specialist Carrier Transicold to test what it says is the world’s first naturally refrigerated trailer to transport chilled and frozen goods. The CO2-refrigerated unit trial is part of the retailer’s review of its transport refrigeration gas as it aims to reduce its carbon footprint, which includes converting its stores to natural refrigeration by 2030.

In August, Delhaize America opened a grocery store that uses CO2 as a refrigerant rather than hydroflourocarbon — the first such supermarket in the US, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.