The world’s largest supplier of hydrogen, Air Products, announced on August 31, 2026, that it has broadened hydrogenation standards of its cutting-edge Chemicals and Refinery Process Lab at its Global Corporate Headquarters located in Pennsylvania’s Allentown.
According to Director of Advanced Technology – Merchant Research and Development at Air Products, Ranajit Ghosh, “The recent enhancements at our Chemicals and Refinery Process Lab enable Air Products to be a one-stop shop and true collaborator with our customers, helping them to efficiently test hydrogenation processes to find solutions to maximize production while ensuring product quality.”
The fact is that the Chemicals and Refinery Processing Lab, or Hydrogen Reaction Lab of Air Products, offers customers a world-class lab that delivers uninterrupted flow hydrogenation, catalyst analysis and screening, along with process discovery and optimisation for the refining, chemicals, pharmaceutical as well as flavors and fragrance sectors.
The laboratory is equipped with 3 continuous downflow fixed bed reactors and cold phase as well as hot phase high-pressure separators. This arrangement enables customers to conduct continuous hydrogenation reactions and assess actual performance involving a product, allowing customers to more accurately predict output, purity, and scale-up behavior ahead of commercial implementation.
With broadened hydrogenation standards, each reactor can be configured to operate on a specific catalyst of the customer for trials. This enables the customer to conduct several sequential reaction steps with different catalysts at high pressure and varying temperatures. Customers can also collaborate with proficient scientists from Air Products so as to identify safe, confidential solutions that lead to improving their processes.
Notably, the Air Products Chemicals and Refinery Processing Lab was set up in 2015 and relocated to its current home in 2021 when Air Products established its new Global Corporate Headquarters. The lab is intended to support customers in the hydrogenation space so as to modify and implement new feedstocks, catalysts and various other operational parameters in order to optimize the hydrogenation component of their facility. In particular, the lab is designed to help customers optimize operating conditions to attain higher product output and productivity while achieving a long cycle length to minimize interruptions, uphold product specifications, and minimize total expenses. This is not a separate specialized laboratory but a blend of process development, safety, hydrogen supply, and scale-up expertise that lets customers move smoothly from routine testing to commercial operation, says Air Products.