Air Water merges two group companies of Air Water Hydro which deals with the hydrogen gas business and Air Water Carbonic which deals with the liquid carbon dioxide (LCO2) and dry ice business with effect from April 1 of this year to form a new company under the name of Air Water . 　

The merged company establishes a new business model related to the solution to decarbonization and clean energy while promoting the existing businesses of industrial hydrogen, liquid carbon dioxide and dry ice, so that it may accelerate its business activities aiming at the carbon-neutral market in which demand expansion is expected.

The head office of the new company is planned to be located in the premises of Air Water Tokyo Office at Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo. This project was established in November 2023 in order to materialize an early commercialization of group’s decarbonation and the clean-energy related business. The capital of the newly merged company is ¥480 million which is 100% invested by Air Water. A total of the sales added up amounts to a scale of about ¥24 billion. The sales ratio of hydrogen versus carbon dioxide business is 1 to 5 in the total sales.

Air Water is also proceeding with some technological developments now keeping an eye on the forthcoming commercialization for decarbonization and clean energies. Concretely, they include the separation/collection of CO2 from exhausted CO2 of low concentration, the utilization technology from the collected CO2 to reuse for chemical raw materials or synthetic methane and the production of CO2 -free hydrogen by the direct methane reforming without exhaustion of CO2 from methane.
Both companies have a common history of having been acquired by M&A when Air Water was incorporated in 2001. The LCO2 and dry ice business started in September 2001 when Air Water acquired the shares of Mitsui Chemicals Praxair from Praxair (now Linde) and renamed it to Air Water Carbonic in April 2005. The company now has production bases at ten locations and boasts the top share of the dry ice business across the country.

In December 2001, likewise, the company acquired from Sumitomo 52.5% shares of Sumisho Fine Gas which deals with the hydrogen business in the group and changed the trade name to Air Water Hydro in July 2007. The company has on-site hydrogen gas supply bases at 14 locations across the country and the compressed H2 production bases at 11 locations across the country, and has started to produce and distribute H2 gas generator VHR.