Air Products Annouces Plans to Build Midwest CO2 Plant

By Jack Tobias

Air Products announced this week it will build a facility in western Iowa to produce liquid carbon dioxide.

The company's announcement notes that just this past June, it acquired EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products of Monroe, La., making Air Products a leader in the North American liquid CO2 market.

“Following the EPCO acquisition last summer, we have been focusing our attention on expanding our presence in the Midwest and this project helps us in achieving that objective,” Nelson Squires, vice president and general manager of North American Merchant Gases at Air Products, said in a news release posted on the company website.

Air Products will use production at the new facility in Council Bluffs to market food-grade and beverage-grade liquid CO2. Production is expected to begin early next year. Council Bluffs is across the Missouri River from Omaha, Neb.

Air Products said it has signed a long-term agreement with Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy LLC. Air Products will build a facility to produce 400 tons per day of liquid CO2 at SIRE’s established ethanol production facility in Council Bluffs.

“This additional supply source will further strengthen our liquid CO2 network and provide enhanced supply reliability to our food and beverage, as well as our industrial bulk gas customers in the Midwest," Squires said.

When onstream, the facility will increase the number of Air Products’ liquid CO2 production plants in the United States to 13.