Air Water has added a large ASU (GO capacity 35,000 Nm3/h) for on-site use at the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal plant in Kashima. The facility went on stream in July.

For quite some time Air Water had been engaged in supplying air gas to the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal plant in Kashima through piping. Due to the aging of this existing supply facility, Unit 3, investment was made in expansion with the latest type of facility.

The specifications of Unit 8, the new facility, show production capacities of 35,000 Nm3 an hour for GO, 21,000 Nm3 an hour for GN, and 1,300 Nm3 an hour for argon. This is the largest plant for the Air Water in terms of gaseous oxygen. Air Water Plant & Engineering and the Air Water R&D, along with Kobelco Air Water Cryoplant, got together for the development and production of the facility. The investment came to about 5 billion.

Up to now Air Water has operated 6 units for the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal plant in Kashima. With the introduction of this Unit 8, Unit 3, which had been constructed over 40 years ago and was showing its age, will be shut down. Unit 4 with a GO capacity of 3,000 Nm3 an hour and Unit 6 will be placed in reserve. With Units 5, 7, and 8 the total GO production capacity will come to 105,000 Nm3 an hour. Also the production capacity of argon at the plant comes to a total of 5,000 Nm3 an hour, making it the largest in Japan.