BOC to Build Only Carbon Dioxide Plant in U.S. Northeast

BOC is expanding its carbon dioxide (CO₂) capacity with a new plant in Volney, New York. The plant will be the first CO₂ plant built in the Northeast in nearly two decades and will be the only CO₂ plant in the region.

BOC will build the 600 ton a day plant at the Permolex International/NEB ethanol plant, expected to begin operating in December 2007, and which will be housed in a former brewery in the Riverview Business Park, some 25 miles north of Syracuse.

When BOC’s plant comes online next year it will capture ethanol’s by-product, CO₂, purify it and liquefy it for sale to BOC customers. Those customers, major food and beverage companies and chemicals manufacturers are located throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England.

“This plant will be the third largest in our network of 30-plus CO₂ plants around the country. Its location allows BOC to improve supply reliability by moving closer to our customers,” said Trevor Burt, president, PGS North America.

The Northeast has had no local CO₂ production since 2005 when a Massachusetts CO₂ source closed. Since then, BOC has served its customers by railing and trucking CO₂ from sources in the Midwest and South.

“The Volney location appealed to us for its unique infrastructure and transportation links, allowing us to send CO₂ more efficiently to our existing rail depots in Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and to customers located along the major Northeast interstate highways,” Burt said.

BOC will create between 15 and 20 jobs at the plant, most of which will be truck driver positions.

Eric W. Will II, NEB project developer, said he welcomes BOC’s investment in the project and the company’s experience and expertise as a major CO₂ supplier. “We’re pleased to be able to partner with BOC, a leader in the safe and reliable production and supply of CO₂, and to be able to combine our efforts to create jobs and economic opportunities for people in this region.”

CO₂ comes from a variety of sources including natural wells, oil refineries, ammonia and ethanol plants. U.S. cleaner fuels legislation has boosted the growth of fuel ethanol production for use as a gasoline additive. The Permolex International/NEB plant will use some 41 million bushels of corn grown locally and in the Midwest as feedstock to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year. But the company, supported by a $4 million New York State grant, hopes eventually to produce ethanol from willow tree chips.

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