Praxair Environmental Responsibility
Principles of Sustainability
Executive Message
Governance and Integrity
Customer Commitment
Environmental Applications
Air Quality
Water Quality
Energy Savings
Environmental Goals
Employee Safety
Community Support
Financial Performance
Additional Information
GOAL: Reduce greenhouse gas intensity2 by 8% over 10 years.
To meet our greenhouse gas goal, we will have to achieve our energy-intensity goals and increase the efficiency of our transportation fleet and closed-loop refrigeration systems. We will establish greenhouse-gas-intensity goals throughout our businesses to enable implementation of additional process improvements.

    In our atmospheric gases business, which involves the production of oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases derived from the air, we expect to improve our greenhouse-gas intensity by about the same 18% as our goal for energy-intensity improvement. However, our ability to improve greenhouse-gas intensity in the hydrogen business will be limited by the laws of chemistry. Below is the chemical formula for combining natural gas (methane) with water to produce hydrogen, which inevitably produces carbon dioxide:

Natural Gas Plus Water (Steam) Generates Hydrogen Plus Carbon Dioxide
CH4 + 2H2O <-> 4H2 + CO2

In a typical steam-methane reformer, four hydrogen molecules are produced for each carbon dioxide molecule. However, because hydrogen is much lighter than carbon dioxide, six tons of carbon dioxide are produced for each ton of hydrogen produced. We believe that the environmental benefit of making the hydrogen is much greater than the negative impact of the carbon dioxide. For each ton of hydrogen used in gasoline refining, 16 tons of sulfur are removed, which reduces harmful emissions from vehicles.
Environmental Responsibility
GOAL: Reduce toxic releases.
Praxair’s toxic releases, as reported annually to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are among the lowest in the chemical industry. The increase in the 2001 total inventory reflects a one-time disposal of obsolete metals by the Praxair Surface Technologies business, which manufactures high-performance coatings for metal parts. Much of this material was recycled. In 2002, our electronics business recovered a large volume of ammonia from cylinders returned by customers, treated it and resold it as fertilizer. Additional releases were generated by hydrogen-carbon monoxide operations. Through recovery and treatment programs, we will continue to reduce our toxic releases.
    2 Greenhouse gas intensity = Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton of product or per million cubic feet of product
BACK NEXT