July 18, 2001—The United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a ground-breaking Clean Air Act settlement with Air Liquide America Corporation to replace refrigerant chemicals with environmentally friendly alternatives.
The United States charged Air Liquide with illegally releasing ozone-depleting gases from industrial process refrigeration systems at 22 facilities located in 18 states. The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, requires Air Liquide to convert all its industrial refrigeration systems now using regulated ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to systems using alternative, environmentally friendly refrigerants.
Air Liquide America Corporation is a subsidiary of L’Air Liquide, SA, Paris France, the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial and medical gases, such as super-cooled liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases. The company’s cryogenic manufacturing facilities use large industrial refrigeration systems containing ozone-depleting substances regulated under the Clean Air Act.
Under the settlement Air Liquide will replace or completely retrofit 46 industrial refrigeration systems to coolant methods that are environmentally benign, and will retire seven more systems which use ozone-depleting refrigerants.
Air Liquide could have continued to use regulated, ozone-depleting refrigerants in these systems for an indefinite period of time, provided the company complied with CAA requirements. Instead, the company chose to voluntarily revamp its refrigeration processes.
