What Happened in the Gas Industry in July?

1. Bluejay Mining discovers high concentrations of helium and hydrogen in Finland

British mining giant Bluejay Mining announced that it has discovered high concentrations of hydrogen and helium in the Outokumpu project in Finland, with a helium concentration of 5.6%.

In addition, the US Energy Corporation has acquired the Land of Montana, which is part of its goal of producing helium in the KEVIN DOME structure in TOOLE County. There are several potential gas production areas in the land, which are mainly composed of inert nitrogen and carbon dioxide heavy areas.

Helium is a rare gas with the chemical formula He. It is colorless and odorless, chemically inactive, and generally difficult to react with other substances. The application of helium in aerospace cannot be ignored. It can be used as a pressure agent and booster for rocket liquid fuel, and is widely used in missiles, spacecraft and supersonic aircraft. Helium is used as a protective gas in smelting and welding, which is very important in shipbuilding and the manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft, rockets and weapons. Helium has excellent permeability and is suitable for cooling nuclear reactors, leak detection of some pipelines of rockets and nuclear reactors, and electronic and electrical devices. In addition, because helium has low mass density and weight density and is non-flammable, it can be used to fill light bulbs and neon tubes, and is also an ideal gas for balloons and airships.

2. The annual production of 20,000 tons of electronic-grade silane special gas project officially started!

On the morning of July 1, Zhejiang Zhoushan High-tech Zone held a ceremony to start the 2024 key projects and the Northern Special Gas Project. After the project is completed, it will form an annual production scale of 20,000 tons of electronic-grade silane special gas and 20,000 tons of silicon-carbon negative electrode materials.

Silane is a compound of silicon and hydrogen. It is the general name for a series of compounds, including monosilane (SiH4), disilane (Si2H6) and some higher-level silicon hydrogen compounds, with the general formula SinH2n+2. Among them, monosilane is the most common, and sometimes it is also referred to as silane. Nowadays, electronic grade silane is widely used in high-tech fields such as solar energy, displays, semiconductors, etc., and plays an increasingly important role.

3. SK Hynix replacesnitrogen trifluoride with environmentally friendly fluorine gas for chip production cleaning process

SK Hynix has replaced the gases used in some cleaning process steps in its chip production with more environmentally friendly gases. According to the chipmaker's 2024 Sustainability Report, the company conducted tests to replace nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) with gases with low global warming potential (GWP). Since 2023, it has replaced some process steps with these new gases, one of which is fluorine (F2).

5. Air Liquide announces new investment

Recently, Air Liquide announced that it will invest approximately 100 million euros to provide gas products in Bulgaria and Germany to Aurubis AG, a leading global supplier of non-ferrous metals and one of the world's largest copper recycling companies. The investment will build a new air separation unit (ASU) in Bulgaria and modernize four existing units in Germany.

In addition, Air Liquide Group announced its results for the first half of 2024 on July 26. Operating profit margins increased significantly, but net profits declined. In the first half of the year, Air Liquide’s revenue reached 13.379 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%. The gas and services business, which accounts for more than 95% of the group's revenue, increased by 2.6% year-on-year in the first half of the year to 12.796 billion euros.

6. Air Products to build two new air separation units in the United States

Air Products announced that it will build two new air separation units (ASUs) in the United States, located in Conyers, Georgia and Reidsville, North Carolina. The new ASUs will replace older facilities and provide additional capacity and are expected to be put into operation in 2026.