Air Products (NYSE:APD), Lehigh Valley, PA, and Linde Gas North America announced they have formed Hydrochlor, a 50-50 joint venture to supply high-purity anhydrous hydrochloric acid (HCl) to the electronics and other industries.
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HCl is a raw material used by semiconductor manufacturers for cleaning reactors used in the epitaxial process and also is used for chamber cleaning. A majority of North American merchant HCl is supplied to the pharmaceuticals and agricultural industries. HCl also is used as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of inorganic chlorides.
As part of the agreement, Hydrochlor will build a facility to process and package HCl supplied via pipeline from The Dow Chemical Company. The new facility will be located on Dow’s Freeport, TX, site. Oversight for Hydrochlor will be governed by a team of managers from each partner company.
Hydrochlor will sell HCl to the joint venture partners, who will continue to market HCl independently.
“This significant investment in Hydrochlor secures a vital domestic supply of high-purity HCl for a variety of end markets,” said Corning Painter, vice president and general manager of Electronics for Air Products.
“This is an important development for our customers,” said Cliff Caldwell, vice president of Electronics and Specialty Gases for Linde North America. “There have been concerns regarding the continuity of supply for high-purity HCl into the merchant market for some time. This new production and filling plant will finally put these concerns to rest. When completed, the Freeport facility will be the largest HCl production plant in the country and will allow Linde to continue supplying critical high-purity HCl to its U.S. and international customers.”