LNG

Chart Industries Inc., the US equipment-maker for the liquefied natural gas and other clean energy and industrial gases markets, said global end-market demand continued to be strong in 2024.

Chart Industries, the leading US equipment-maker for LNG and industrial and new energy projects, has signed a memorandum of understanding to supply liquefaction process technology, associated equipment as well as a series of fuelling stations for another US company.

Chart said its deal was with BNG Clean Fuel Corp., a private company focused on the delivery of scalable infrastructure solutions for the production, storage, and delivery of hydrogen fuel to the power, marine, rail, oil and gas, mining and transportation industries,.

“Additionally, the companies will collaborate to develop further industry relationships with customers in the end-use industries described above to utilize BNG’s ‘hub, spoke and wheel model’ facilities for hydrogen production, virtual pipeline networks, bulk cargo shipping, and fuel dispensing stations.

Chart said that while no orders had been booked relating to this MOU or project, they are anticipated to be booked in 2023 and 2024 for both the equipment and process technology scope.

BNG is focused on its their Denver H2 pilot hub with dual-22 ton per day capacity hydrogen liquefaction facilities, a centrally located storage terminal, 10 liquid hydrogen stations, tankers and mobile fuelling equipment which will be provided by Chart.

“BNG is taking a pragmatic approach to scaling of the hydrogen economy, with a focus on the hub and spoke model starting in North America,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s Chief Executive and President.

“This MOU brings Chart’s extensive technology and equipment experience to the project. We look forward to supporting BNG’s endeavours to deliver another option to the hydrogen end-use market,” it added.

Eliot Barton, CEO of BNG Clean Fuel which is a privately held Delaware Corporation based in Aurora, said he was pleased with the deal.

“In partnering with Chart Industries, BNG has aligned with a recognized global leader in the manufacturing of the highest-quality equipment in the industry,” said Barton.

“This relationship will help solidify our capitalization efforts and attract additional key partners to ensure the success of our first hydrogen hub and rapidly develop other planned regional markets,” he added.

Chart Industries Inc., the liquefied natural gas equipment-maker and industrial gas technology company, reported first-quarter 2022 all-time record orders of $636.8 million, its fourth record-order quarter out of the past five quarters.

US LNG-equipment maker and industrial gases company Chart Industries reported increases in quarterly and annual net profits and logged a record number of new customers.

Chart booked orders with 65 new customers in the final three months of 2020, resulting in record full-year 2020 new customers of 472, of which 109 were in Specialty division.

The company also completed four acquisitions outside the LNG sector related to carbon capture, water treatment and hydrogen as well as making a $15 million investment in carbon-capture company Svante on February 2021.

It additionally acquired Cryo Technologies on February 16, 2021 adding proven hydrogen and helium liquefaction to its portfolio, expanding into specialty markets of $5.75 billion potential.

Chart reported fourth-quarter net income of $269.8M compared with $12.5M in the prior-year quarter.

Chart’s annual profits amounted to $320.1M versus $46.4M in 2019.

“While hydrogen, biogas and carbon capture are the hottest topics right now, LNG is still extremely active, particularly as the cost fundamentals are competitive and infrastructure continues to be built worldwide,” stated Chart.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based company noted that at the end of December 2020, the Government of India stated that there were plans to create a gas infrastructure in India with an investment of $60Bln over the next four years, inclusive of LNG terminals.

“India is just one region where LNG continues to be a good answer for a cost competitive, scalable step in the energy transition,” stated Chart.

The company expects fueling stations and HLNG vehicle tanks for onboard heavy duty trucks to continue around or above 2020 levels throughout 2021, and also expects two small-scale LNG terminals and mid-scale LNG projects to move ahead with final investment decision in 2021.

Chart recorded a full-year record for fueling station orders of 71 stations, up 18.3 percent over 2019.

“The fourth quarter of 2020 capped a strong year in unprecedented times, thanks to the entire Chart team,” said Jill Evanko, Chart’s Chief Executive and President.

“In 2020, we made significant progress in penetrating the global high growth markets of clean energy, specialty and repair and service as evidenced by 472 new customers and 33 long-term agreements,” added Evanko.

“The combination of strong free cash flow, strategic investments, record backlog and operational execution resulted in multiple full year 2020 and fourth quarter 2020 records,” stated the CEO.

“More importantly, the performance puts us in position to make 2021 a breakthrough year for our business as we serve our global energy and industrial gas customers’ growing and changing needs,” said Evanko.

Chart generated $60.2 of net cash provided by operating activities, resulting in $49.6M of free cash flow, the second highest cash flow quarter in the company’s history.

“Hydrogen continues to be our hottest specialty market, with record orders ($38M) and backlog ($39M) in 2020,” said Chart.

“We expect over 70 percent in hydrogen sales growth in 2021 when compared to 2020,” it added.

“We have completed a memorandum of understanding with Matrix Service Company for standardized small-scale hydrogen offerings and a joint development agreement with Ballard Power Systems to jointly develop integrated system solutions,” explained Chart.

“This includes a fuel cell engine with onboard liquid hydrogen storage and vaporization for the transportation industry, with a focus on heavy-duty applications including buses, trucks, rail and marine vessels,” the company stated.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases company, has acquired another US company, Cryogenic Gas Technologies Inc., in its latest products expansion move.

Chart said it paid $55 million in cash for Cryo Technologies, which will retain its operational base in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The acquisition was described by Chart as a global leader in custom engineered process systems to separate, purify, refrigerate, liquefy and distribute high value industrial gases such as hydrogen, helium, argon and hydrocarbons with design capabilities for cold boxes for hydrogen and helium use.

The distribution systems Cryo Technologies supplies are located within the helium and hydrogen liquefaction facilities and are inclusive of trailer loading systems, which facilitates the first step in product distribution.

Chart confirmed that company founder and President Rick Hessinger, along with the entire Cryo Technologies team, will stay with Chart and continue to be located in their offices in Allentown.

“We could not be more excited to welcome Rick and the Cryo Technologies team into the Chart family,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s Chief Executive and President.

“Their world class, differentiated cryogenic engineering expertise, global project experience in hydrogen and helium liquefaction coupled with our process technologies, brazed aluminum heat exchanger and cold box manufacturing capabilities creates the only multi-molecule full-solution liquefaction and equipment offering in the world,” Evanko explained.

“Couple the above complementary nature of the business with the fact that our companies have worked together for 20 years, and immediate and significant synergies exist,” stated the Chart CEO.

Both Chart, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Cryo Technologies have very active commercial order pipelines with multiple requests for hydrogen liquefaction and processing.

In recent years, Chart acquired Harsco Corp.’s Air-X-Changers business, boosting its offering of air-cooled heat exchangers and industrial fans.

Other Chart takeovers have included German company VCT Vogel, a servicer of cryogenic and mobile gas tank equipment and trucks and a European leader in truck-mounted drive and control systems, and the small US and Italian companies,, Hudson Products and VRV SpA.

“The combination of Chart and Cryo Technologies offers the market a unique one-stop shop for customers who want to liquefy and market the hydrogen molecule, regardless of plant capacity, but need an experienced and reliable equipment and process supplier for liquefaction and storage,” stated Chart.

Additionally, Cryo Technologies has expertise in helium liquefaction and this will open up that sector for Chart as large helium liquefaction projects also requiring storage, ISO containers and transport.

Chart, which is expected to publish its earnings on February 18, said the acquired company is expected to contribute approximately $30M of revenue in Chart’s 2021 outlook.