By Linda F. Jarrett
When global company Air Products selected St. Charles as the place for expanding its full line of PRISM® membrane products, they worked with the Regional Chamber and Growth Association to find the perfect place.
Now, the walls are up for their new production facility at Fountain Lakes Commerce Center in St. Charles, Mo., with completion on Phase I expected at the end of August.
Based in Lehigh Valley, Pa., Air Products, a worldwide leader in production of gas
separation and purification membranes, has an existing facility in Maryland Heights, Mo. They wanted to have another plant to meet the increasing global demand for their PRISM® membrane product.
Charles Page, director of operations and technology for the Maryland Heights facility, says, “Much of our business is for military aircraft, and they would like us to have a separate plant in case something happens to this one, such as a tornado. Then we would not have to shut down all of our production.”
Page says the company looked at many sites, even checking out overseas locations before selecting Fountain Lakes.
“We knew we wanted to use the same technical staff to cover both plants, so in the end, we decided it would be a good idea to keep the technology close to home, and make the new plant an extension of this one,” he says. “We’re making similar products so it would be good to have the engineers go back and forth.”
The 98,000-square-foot building will provide 55 jobs with starting wages over $40,000 says Nadine Boon, director of economic development for the City of
St. Charles.
When Air Products expressed an interest in building an additional facility in this
area, they contacted the RCGA about possible sites.
Boon worked with Lori Becklenberg, director of business recruitment at RCGA.
“When she contacted me about available sites, I submitted some to her to consider for this project unknown to me as to whom the company was,” Boon says. “As time went by, it became apparent that they were very interested in the City of St. Charles and the site we had offered.”
In a conference call with St. Charles city officials, Air Products executives and the RCGA, St. Charles’ enthusiasm and preparedness impressed Air Products.
“They had just finished an expansion in Maryland Heights when we first started working with them in the fall of 07,” says Jim Alexander, RCGA vice president of business recruitment. “Their local executives had been looking for real estate and had a short list of potential real estate options when we became involved.”
Alexander says that the Air Products executives had sought advice and information about economic development incentives that could apply and how RCGA could guide them through the development process.
“St. Charles was extremely well prepared when everyone came to the table,” Alexander says.
Boon says that the company was “on a fast-track and fortunately, our teamwork passed their test. Collaborative efforts on all fronts were nothing short of outstanding. Air Products inspired us to move quickly and enthusiastically to bring this phenomenal product with quality jobs to fruition right here in St. Charles.”
Boon also commended St. Charles Mayor Patricia M. York and the St. Charles City Council for their support and direction.
Air Products’ PRISM® line of gas generation systems supplies generate nitrogen and oxygen to more than 1,500 customers in over 30 countries worldwide, and include many different applications from aircraft to oil refineries to service stations.
The membrane is made from a polymer, Page says, and is used to separate gases. “If you want to separate air which is basically a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, if you pass compressed air through the membrane device, it will take the oxygen molecules out and give you a somewhat purified oxygen stream, and the nitrogen is left behind. These are both products that can be produced by our membranes, both oxygen and nitrogen and one of our big markets is to generate nitrogen for industrial purposes.”
Regarding the aircraft application, Page referred to the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 which was caused by sparking in a near empty center fuel tank.
“The FAA, after studying the crash for 10 years, decided they would mandate that aircraft with center fuel tanks—the larger commercial aircraft—have systems on board that generate the nitrogen to keep the fuel tanks inert to help prevent an explosion like Flight 800.”
A similar application would be blanketing capabilities in natural gas shipments in which the nitrogen provides an inert blanket around the vessels carrying the liquefied gas shipments, says Air Products Communication Manager Art George. “This is much like the example about nitrogen’s inerting capability aboard aircraft.”
Service stations would use the PRISM® membrane for filling tires with nitrogen which, Page says, “is drier and actually leaks out through the tire rubber slower than regular air, so you are able to maintain your tire pressure at the correct range for a longer time, which helps with gas mileage.
The Millstone Company is the owner/developer of Fountain Lakes, which is located at the intersection of Highway 370 and Elm Street/New Town Boulevard. Korte Construction Company did the design-build for the project.
Korte Vice President Dennis Araujo says the “biggest thing was just getting started. It’s been a straightforward project with good collaboration between the teams.
“Once we got the design complete with
all the parties on the same page and
approvals in place, we got started. It’s been a good project and everything has gone
very well.”
Page says that after the building is
finished, “then we can begin the inside part to purchase equipment and install. We’re anticipating being on steam in early 2010.”
The entire project, Phase I and Phase II will be 171,790 square feet. George
says that they did not have a date for Phase II completion.
