A New Step Forward in Clean Mobility: Air Liquide and Groupe ADP Open the Hydrogen Station at the Paris-Orly Airport

Regulatory News:

Air Liquide (Paris:AI) and Groupe ADP today inaugurated the first public hydrogen station installed in an airport zone in France. It was designed and installed by Air Liquide with the support of the FCH JU¹ and is promoting the deployment of "Hype”, the world's first hydrogen-powered taxi fleet. This collective project is opening up a new clean mobility option in the Greater Paris Area.

Hydrogen offers a number of benefits for clean transportation. Used in a fuel cell, it combines with the oxygen in the air to produce electricity, with water as the only byproduct. It does not generate any pollution at its point of use: zero greenhouse gases, zero particles and zero noise. Hydrogen brings a concrete response to the challenges of sustainable mobility and local pollution in urban areas. It takes less than five minutes to recharge hydrogen-powered electric vehicles for a driving range of around 500 kilometers.

With this new station located at a major airport, Air Liquide and Groupe ADP are helping to develop a network of hydrogen stations in the Greater Paris Area and contributing to the adoption of clean modes of transportation. The Parisian taxi fleet "Hype”, the world’s first ever taxi fleet powered by hydrogen, was launched by the start-up STEP (Société du Taxi Électrique Parisien) in 2015, in partnership with Air Liquide. Currently powered by an Air Liquide station located in the heart of the French capital, at Cours Albert 1er near Pont de l’Alma, the fleet counts more than 50 hydrogen-powered vehicles and plans to grow to 600 taxis by 2020. Air Liquide will continue to support the growth of this offer by opening new hydrogen stations around Paris in 2018, notably one near Versailles, and another at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Benoît Potier, Chairman and CEO of Air Liquide, commented: "Present in the hydrogen sector for 50 years, Air Liquide is actively developing its energy applications today and is involved in the organization of this field, mostly through the Hydrogen Council. The installation of this charging station at the Orly Airport, in collaboration with Groupe ADP, marks a new step in the development of clean mobility in and around Paris. It also illustrates the maturity of technologies and the mobilization of a growing number of players in promoting hydrogen energy. Indeed, this molecule has a key role to play in the energy transition thanks to its capacity to store renewable energies and its various applications for industry and transport.”

Augustin de Romanet, Chairman and CEO of Groupe ADP, added: "The rollout of this innovative equipment in collaboration with Air Liquide is one of the embodiment of our ambitious policy promoting innovation while protecting the environment. A hydrogen station will also be installed at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2018. This new energy offer provides access to new modes of transportation and allows us to reaffirm our role as an experimental territory and as a key player in the field of mobility.”

Air Liquide’s commitment to hydrogen energy

Air Liquide masters the entire hydrogen supply chain, from production and storage to distribution and the development of applications for end users, thus contributing to the widespread use of hydrogen as a clean energy source, for mobility in particular. Air Liquide has designed and installed 100 stations around the world to date.

In January 2017, Air Liquide and Toyota co-founded the "Hydrogen Council”, the world’s first initiative for hydrogen bringing together 28 key players in energy, transportation and industry.

Blue Hydrogen is an Air Liquide program whose goal is to gradually decarbonize its production of hydrogen dedicated to energy applications. In practical terms, Air Liquide has made a commitment to produce at least 50% of the hydrogen necessary for these applications through carbon-free processes by 2020 by combining:

• the use of renewable energies, water electrolysis, and biogas reforming,

• the use of technologies for the capture and upgrading of carbon emitted during the process of producing hydrogen from natural gas.

Even when it is produced from natural gas, hydrogen is a virtuous energy: for equal distance traveled, hydrogen electric cars allow to reduce GHG emissions by 20% compared with internal combustion vehicles and don’t produce any fine particles.

Groupe ADP and the development of clean mobility at Paris’s airports

This hydrogen station completes the choice of charging points available free of charge for electric vehicles in Paris airport parking lots. To enhance passenger and airport staff electromobility, Groupe ADP has installed a total of 162 charging points including 37 for passengers in its public parking areas. Paris-Orly has 11 charging points for drivers using its parking lots.

Groupe ADP has also acquired 172 clean (electric and hybrid) vehicles, including 50 for Paris-Orly. These new systems illustrate ADP’s efforts to reduce local GHG emissions and pollutants. The company was recently rewarded by ACI Europe, which renewed its Level 3 Airport Carbon Accreditation for Paris-Orly, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Le Bourget.

About Air Liquide
The world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 65,000 employees and serves more than 3 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquide’s scientific territory and have been at the core of the company’s activities since its creation in 1902.

Air Liquide’s ambition is to lead its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. The company’s customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders.

Air Liquide’s revenue amounted to €18.1 billion in 2016 and its solutions that protect life and the environment represented more than 40% of sales. Air Liquide is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange (compartment A) and belongs to the CAC 40, EURO STOXX 50 and FTSE4Good indexes.

www.airliquide.com
Follow us on Twitter @airliquidegroup

About Groupe ADP
Groupe ADP builds, develops and manages airports, including Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly and Paris-Le Bourget. In 2016, the Group handled via Paris Aéroport more than 97 million passengers and 2.2 million tons of freight and mail at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly, and more than 42 million passengers in airports abroad through its subsidiary ADP International. Boasting an exceptional geographic location and a major catchment area, the Group is pursuing its strategy of adapting and modernizing its terminal facilities and upgrading quality of services; the Group also intends to develop its retail and real estate businesses. In 2016, Group revenue stood at €2,947 million and net income at €435 million.
Registered office: 1, rue de France, 93 290 Tremblay-en-France. Aéroports de Paris is a public limited company (Société Anonyme) with share capital of €296,881,806. Registered in the Bobigny Trade and Company Register under no. 552 016 628.
groupeadp.fr

¹ The FCH JU (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking) is a public private partnership supporting research, development and demonstration activities in energy technologies, fuel cells and hydrogen in Europe. This infrastructure is part of the H2ME project that has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 671438. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research.

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