Air Products announced that it is teaming up with World Energy to build a new $2 billion major expansion project at World Energy's Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production and distribution hub in Paramount, California. The LA county facility is the world's first commercial scale and North America's only SAF production facility, and its total fuel capacity will be expanded to 340 million gallons annually. The long-term, take-or-pay agreement with World Energy includes Air Products' construction and ownership of a new hydrogen plant to be operated by Air Products and renewable fuels manufacturing facilities to be operated by World Energy.

The project is scheduled to be onstream in 2025 and continues Air Products' leadership in driving the energy transition through world-scale projects. As part of the agreement, Air Products has extended its Southern California hydrogen pipeline network to supply hydrogen to the existing World Energy facility and to further increase supply reliability for all of Air Products' hydrogen pipeline network customers in Southern California. The expanded pipeline network will also enable Air Products to provide low-or-zero-carbon hydrogen in the future.

Air Products and World Energy will collaborate on innovations to transition to green hydrogen inputs, further reducing the carbon intensity of the fuels it produces. The SAF produced by World Energy is a 100% sustainable fuel made entirely of renewable resources and contains no fossil-based feedstock. It is not co-processed with fossil fuel in traditional oil refineries, and its carbon attributes comply with all state and U.S. federal regulations for advanced biofuels.

Its lifecycle carbon emissions are currently up to 80% lower than conventional jet fuel. It is currently approved at a 50/50 blend level with conventional jet fuel for commercial use. World Energy is collaborating with other industry leaders to gain approval for pure 100% renewable SAF use in regular commercial aviation to enable a future of carbon net-zero fossil-free flight.

SAF allows aviation to be powered by the sun's energy, captured by organic materials, and converted into high-energy-density liquid fuels. World Energy has led the commercialization, production, and distribution of low-carbon fuels for more than 20 years and has tackled the world's most difficult decarbonization challenges. By 2050 the facility will produce fuels that will displace over 76 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 3.8 million carbon-net-zero flights from Los Angeles to New York.

It will also significantly reduce the fine particulate emissions in the trucks, trains, and planes powered by World Energy's fuels.