In the area of environmental technologies, Praxair is using its extensive combustion expertise to help coal-fired utilities, which produce more than 50% of electric power in the U.S., to meet regulations requiring large reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions. This technology is a cost-effective, reliable means of significantly reducing these emissions, which generate ground-based ozone and smog. The first commercial installation of Praxair’s patent-pending burner technology was made at Northeast Generation Services Company’s plant in Massachusetts.

Praxair’s patented CoJet® gas-injection technology offers steel producers significant productivity improvements as well as lower emissions. In Brazil, new license agreements for its installation in basic-oxygen furnaces were signed with Sistema Usiminas and its subsidiary, Cosipa (Companhia Siderúrgica Paulista). In the U.S., CoJet systems were installed on two additional basic-oxygen furnaces at U.S. Steel Corporation’s Gary Works in Indiana. The installation of the technology in integrated mills is an extension of the technology’s success in more than 70 electric-arc-furnace (or “mini-mill”) steel mills worldwide. In 2003, Praxair signed the first contract to provide the CoJet system to an electric-arc furnace in China, to be installed at Bao Steel, China’s largest steel manufacturer.

Adding to its portfolio of environmental solutions, Praxair entered into a strategic marketing alliance with Integrated Environmental Technologies, LLC of Richland, Washington, to market IET’s waste-gasification systems. This technology allows for the on-site treatment of wastes generated by chemical, refinery, and electronics plants as well as other treatment opportunities. The plasma-gasification technology produces synthesis gas, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Under the agreement, Praxair will also market and distribute the technology in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

In summary, Praxair’s operating performance in the tough business conditions of 2003 is a tribute to a skilled and creative global team of employees who applied a disciplined approach to growth and problem-solving. Their focus stayed riveted on the customer, offering world-class technology, process expertise, and innovative services. And, most important, they have positioned Praxair for accelerated growth and achievement as the economy recovers in the year ahead.