Air Liquide: Three investments in France to accelerate the Group’s innovation
March 14 2014 - 3:30AM
Business Wire
Regulatory News:
Air Liquide (Paris:AI) has just decided on three investments
in France to help accelerate the Group’s innovation and explore new
markets. These three initiatives represent an investment of nearly
€100 million.
The Group will extend and modernise its Paris-Saclay research
centre, near Versailles, which is its main Research
& Development centre in the world. A single building will house
the 350 current researchers and the 46 laboratories and will
have pilot platforms with equipment for designing and testing
technologies in industrial-scale conditions. It will allow Air
Liquide to reinforce its "open innovation" strategy through
academic and industrial research partnerships with players from the
Paris-Saclay innovation ecosystem. Air Liquide thereby
reinforces its presence in this ecosystem, which now includes
10,500 researchers and 48,000 students, and which by 2020 will
be one the 10 biggest innovation hubs in the world.
Moreover, Air Liquide will also create a centre for the
development of gas packaging for Industry and Health on its
Paris-Saclay site. This centre will gather the Group's expertise in
this field. Its mission will be to develop and industrialise new
gas packagings for Industry and Health, while ensuring optimum
safety, simplicity of use, traceability, and including digital
technologies and new materials, allowing Air Liquide to launch new
offers with a faster time-to-market.
And finally, building on the investments carried out by the
Group in cryogenics for over a century, Air Liquide will create a
technical centre of excellence for cryogenic production
technologies in Vitry-sur-Seine, near Paris. Within the
Engineering & Construction unit, this centre will be
responsible for developing and industrialising innovative and high
added-value technologies for the production of oxygen, as well as
bringing together expertise in this field, while ensuring training,
the protection of know-how, and the transfer of innovation within
the Group's global engineering network.
François Darchis, member of Air Liquide's Executive
Committee, commented: "The Group's innovation is based on our
comprehensive knowledge of our markets, on the mastery of our
technologies and on our capacity to interact with the innovation
ecosystem. These major projects, which bring together diversified
expertises, will allow us to sustain our innovation activity in
France, and will contribute to Air Liquide's profitable growth over
the long term. France is a key country in terms of innovation for
Air Liquide as it has a critical mass of talent.
Our strategy relies on competitiveness in our operations,
targeted investments in growing markets, and innovation to create
new markets and opportunities."
Innovation at the heart of the Group's
strategy
- €265 million innovation expenses in
2013
- 321 new patents filed in 2013
- 6,200 employees contribute to
innovation around the world, mostly in three entities: Research
& Development, advanced Business & Technologies (aB&T),
and Engineering and Construction (Global E&C Solutions). They
explore new territories, business models, technologies, and
services, and they support innovation from the idea to market
maturity.
Technologies of the future tested in
France
It is in France, in Notre-Dame de Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime),
that the Group is implementing the Cryocap H2 project
(a technology for the "cold capture" of CO2 emissions) for the
first time, in one of its hydrogen production plants.
In Moissy-Cramayel, in the Paris region, Air Liquide tests
- for each new development - the technologies that allow the
improvement of the energy efficiency for its cryogenic production
plants.
In Healthcare, in 2013 Air Liquide rolled out a solution in
France for the remote monitoring of data relating to compliance
with treatment intended for patients suffering from sleep
apnea.
Air Liquide is also a key player in the "Hydrogen Mobility
France" initiative, which aims to develop scenarios for the
synchronised rolling out of hydrogen vehicles and filling stations
in France. Air Liquide registered the two first hydrogen-powered
vehicles in France, in 2013.
World leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry
and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with more than
50,000 employees and serves more than 2 million customers and
patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen have been at the core of
the company’s activities since its creation in 1902. Air Liquide’s
ambition is to be the leader in its industry, delivering long-term
performance and acting responsibly.
Air Liquide ideas create value over the long term. At the core
of the company’s development are the commitment and constant
inventiveness of its people.
Air Liquide anticipates the challenges of its markets, invests
locally and globally, and delivers high-quality solutions to its
customers and patients, and the scientific community.
The company relies on competitiveness in its operations,
targeted investments in growing markets and innovation to deliver
profitable growth over the long-term.
Air Liquide’s revenues amounted to € 15.2 billion in 2013, and
its solutions that protect life and the environment represented
around 40% of sales. Air Liquide is listed on the Paris Euronext
stock exchange (compartment A) and is a member of the CAC 40
and Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 indexes.
www.airliquide.comFollow us on Twitter
@AirLiquideGroup
Air LiquideCorporate CommunicationsAnette Rey, +
33 (0)1 40 62 51 31Garance Bertrand, + 33 (0)1 40 62 59
62orInvestor relationsVirginia Jeanson, +33 (0)1 40 62 57
37Annie Fournier, +33 (0)1 40 62 57 18orInnovation
CommunicationsCorinne Estrade-Bordry, +33 (0)1 40 62 51 77
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