22-03-2012

Air Products makes strategic acquisition of Xebec’s adsorption technology

Air Products today announced it has acquired advanced adsorption technology assets for its Generated Gases product lines from Xebec Adsorption, Inc. In this acquisition, Air Products purchased the technology, intellectual property and know-how related to structured adsorbents, beaded adsorbents, and rotary valves from Xebec, a publicly-traded Canadian company specializing in adsorption technology headquartered in Blainville, Quebec, Canada. Air Products is not disclosing terms of the acquisition.

“This acquisition will strengthen and differentiate our current offering portfolio and gives us immediate access to this innovative technology,” said Victoria Boyd, general manager, Global Generated Gases at Air Products. “Adsorption process technology is a core competency of Air Products and a key component of our gas generation plants that produce significant revenues. The acquisition moves Air Products’ adsorption technology platform to a unique proprietary position compared to our competitors.” Monty Alger, chief technology officer at Air Products added that, “the technology will allow for smaller footprint plants and higher process efficiencies for customers, along with other sustainability benefits.”

Advanced gas separation technology uses solid phase adsorbents to purify gases. Adsorption systems are part of the front-end pre-purification technology for air separation units (ASU) for water and carbon dioxide removal, hydrogen-carbon monoxide syngas purification, vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) oxygen, and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) nitrogen generation.

“Air Products has achieved very high adsorption unit performance by applying advanced process cycles to systems using traditional adsorbent materials. Examples would be our world class hydrogen business and leading VSA oxygen technology. This technology acquisition also provides an offering foundation to enter new gas clean-up and purification markets,” said Alger.

As part of this technology acquisition, Air Products will acquire more than 100 patents with significant focus on areas directly related to Air Products’ existing business interests. Air Products also has acquired Xebec’s technology center and testing facilities in Burnaby and Surrey, both located in British Columbia.

Terms of the deal also include a grant-back license to allow Xebec to continue to sell its systems, predominantly in the biogas, natural gas and associated gas purification markets.