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Beaumont’s Downtown Event Centre was abuzz with activity July 27, as hundreds of Southeast Texas suppliers and vendors lined up to get acquainted with Linde professionals tasked with securing contracts for the company’s new multi-million dollar complex soon to commence construction.
Linde, currently planning construction of a complex in Beaumont to produce hydrogen and nitrogen, is specifically seeking suppliers of permanent buildings; civil, electrical and instrumentation servicing; mechanical specialists; temporary structures; as well as general site and facilities services. Construction of this facility is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Coming into the Beaumont vendor fair, the company had already secured the site’s manager, named in Jacob Keeling, who is no stranger to the lay of the land around the Golden Triangle.
Keeling, who has been with Linde for about a decade, was most recently at the company’s Baton Rouge facility, but he is happy to be on the Texas side of Interstate 10, where his family hails from Lumberton.
“It’s really nice to feel like I’m coming back home,” Keeling said, already settling into the community, enrolling his child in school, picking out favorite restaurants, and setting about making Linde a part of the fabric of the community he calls home. “I’m here full-time already.
“We’re really looking to build relationships within the community. We are a community-focused company. We want to improve the areas where we live and work.”
“According to Keeling, Linde is involved in Texas communities, partnering with local institutions of higher learning and school districts, offering STEM camps for science enrichment, and plans similar involvement in Beaumont.
“We plan to be here for a really long time,” Keeling added.
Joined by the Linde team in Beaumont on July 27, Keeling and his crew were treated to a warm reception.
“We had a lot of great engagement from the community,” Keeling shared. Hundreds of connections were made over the morning mix, those making the introductions among the first to be considered to the plethora of contracts to be penned in the near future.
“Great connections were made with local contractors,” according to Keeling, in a vast array of fields. “The diversity of contractors that turned up … civil, electrical environmental… soft services, cleaning, office buildings, ice vendors, technical software providers…
“The community was really engaged.”
As part of this first phase, Keeling said, the company is connecting to suppliers and vendors in the Southeast Texas community. Linde already signed an agreement with the Beaumont based ExxonMobil to transport and permanently store up to 2.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year from the company’s hydrogen production facility, equivalent to the emissions from nearly half a million cars per year.
“Clean hydrogen is a key enabler of industry’s transition to a low-carbon economy,” said Dan Yankowski, Senior Vice President Americas, Linde. “Working with ExxonMobil as the carbon dioxide off-taker at our Beaumont project supports Linde’s strategy to decarbonize customer processes while safely and reliably supplying low-carbon hydrogen at scale.”
Linde has also signed a long-term agreement to supply clean hydrogen and other industrial gases to OCI’s new blue ammonia plant in Beaumont. As part of the Linde Gulf Coast industrial gas infrastructure, the company is set to supply clean hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI’s 1.1 million ton per annum blue ammonia plant by sequestering more than 1.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
In addition to supplying OCI, Linde will also use its pipeline network to provide clean hydrogen to existing and new customers in the U.S. Gulf Coast, addressing the increasing demand from companies to decarbonize their operations, as well as atmospheric and rare gases to existing and new customers.
As a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2022 sales of $33 billion, Linde touts providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services to sustain, decarbonize and protect the planet. The company serves a variety of end markets, such as chemicals and energy, food and beverage, electronics, health care, manufacturing, metals and mining.
July 28, Linde announced publication of its 2022 Sustainable Development Report, which details the company’s progress towards sustainability goals that include the “35 by 35” initiative that targets absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 35% by 2035, compared to 2021.
During 2022, Linde reportedly reduced GHG emissions by 2.8% compared with the previous year.
“Productivity initiatives saved more than 400 million gallons of water and diverted more than 225 million pounds of waste from landfill,” the company report detailed. “Linde’s products, technologies and services also helped its customers to avoid more than 90 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022 – comparable to the annual emissions from 20 million passenger cars, and more than double Linde’s own global emissions.”
“Sustainability is a fundamental part of what Linde does every day,” said Sanjiv Lamba, Linde CEO. “I am particularly proud of the contribution our teams have made to improve our environmental performance, reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 and placing us on track to achieve our ‘35 by 35’ target. We will continue to deliver against our sustainability targets while accelerating the decarbonization of our customers around the world.”
Keeling said the company’s clean approach will only add to the enriching services Linde hopes to provide in and around Beaumont.
“One of the great things about Linde,” Keeling said, “we are looking to build clean networks … and make our communities cleaner and more environmentally friendly.”
ExxonMobil is only the beginning.
“ExxonMobil’s agreement with Linde underscores our growing momentum in providing industrial customers with large-scale solutions to sequester carbon dioxide emissions,” said Dan Ammann, President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “Linde’s Beaumont clean hydrogen project is another significant step towards achieving heavy industry’s decarbonization and net zero goals.”
“You’ll see me everywhere,” Keeling added. “We’re introducing ourselves into Beaumont in a big way.”
Apart from the industry to support Linde’s goals, the people of the community are also highly desirable – and part of Linde’s plans for the future.
“We’re off to a great start,” Keeling said, pointing to industry, but also Lamar University, Lamar Institute of Technology, and the array of training facilities around Southeast Texas training a workforce needed to advance technology. “We did our homework. We knew what was here in advance. That’s why we invest in communities like Beaumont – there’s just so much talent.”
The tidal wave of talent presented at the July 27 event will be considered when the time comes to fill the growing Linde needs that come with the new facility’s construction.
“Everyone who submitted their information is up for review,” Keeling said. “If you don’t submit your information, you’re taking yourself out of that race.
“We want to work with you, but you have to let us know you want to work.”