Oct 18 2010
Air Products (NYSE: APD) today announced it has signed a contract with Anhui Sanan OptoElectronics Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Sanan OptoElectronics, to build two on-site ammonia (NH3) plants at Sanan's new high brightness light emitting diode (LED) manufacturing facility in the Wuhu Economic and Technological Development Area, Anhui Province, China. These new facilities, which will supply ammonia with state-of-the-art purity to Sanan, will be the first and largest on-site specialty gas plants in the world.
Each plant Air Products is building will be capable of supplying 2,000 metric tons per year. Large volumes of NH3 are needed to provide the nitrogen source for the gallium nitride layers used in the manufacture of LEDs. Air Products currently supplies Sanan OptoElectronics' two other LED facilities in China.
"We are pleased Sanan OptoElectronics chose Air Products for their high purity ammonia needs at Anhui," said Corning Painter, vice president and general manager, Electronics, for Air Products. "At these volumes, Air Products is the only company providing ammonia with the purity at the source necessary for LED production."
Air Products has a long history of building on-site industrial gas plants. In fact, the company pioneered the process in the 1940s. Since then, it has been building on-site facilities serving the refining, chemicals, steel and glass making industries around the world.