Industrial gases distributor Air Products, Lehigh Valley, PA, said it will build, own and operate two air separation units (ASUs) to provide oxygen and nitrogen to specialty chemical company Eastman's facility in Kingsport, TN, under new long-term agreements. The ASUs are targeted to be onstream in early 2021, the company said.

The units will replace Air Products' 35-year-old ASUs operating at the Kingsport facility. The new ASUs will continue to serve Air Products' established merchant customer base and growing merchant markets including metals processing, medical, chemicals and food with liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen and liquid argon.

Air Products has been supplying Eastman in Kingsport since 1983, the company said.