Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) will invest close to €200 million to build production capacities in the Science Parks of Tainan and Hsinchu, respectively located in the South and the North of Taiwan. Under a long-term commitment with a semiconductor market leader, this investment in new production capacity will allow the Group to supply three high volume semiconductor fabrication plants under construction in Tainan Science Park, as well as some of the world’s most advanced R&D fabs for logic IC chips in Hsinchu Science Park.
Air Liquide, through its majority owned joint-venture Air Liquide Far Eastern, will build, own and operate ultra-high purity hydrogen and oxygen plants in each basin for a total of 5,000 Nm3 of hydrogen per hour and two large scale plants in Hsinchu to produce high-purity nitrogen and argon, for an additional capacity of 120,000 Nm3 of high purity nitrogen per hour. It will also supply large volumes of Helium to these fabs. The first plants are expected to start during the second quarter of 2021 to support the customer’s multi-billion-dollar wafer fabs expansion.
This breakthrough was in large part driven by Air Liquide’s demonstrated record in providing reliable and power-efficient nitrogen and argon production technology and services to its customers, as well as by its capacity to provide low carbon and high-purity hydrogen and oxygen differentiated solutions. Hydrogen will be partially produced from renewable energy sources, which will avoid the emission of an estimated 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
François Abrial, Member of the Air Liquide Group’s Executive Committee supervising Asia Pacific, said: “Reinforcing our current position as a key supplier of high purity nitrogen in the Taichung Science Park in Central Taiwan, Air Liquide is pleased to have been selected as the supplier of high purity gases in both the Tainan and Hsinchu Science Parks. This further recognizes how Air Liquide’s demonstrated expertise, innovation and commitment have enabled us to be a partner of the semiconductor industry for more than 30 years in Taiwan and across Asia. In the context of the pandemic, we are proud to support this industry which enables better and faster people connectivity through enhanced IT infrastructure and 5G deployment.”