Airgas Features Innovative and Sustainable Solutions for Food Industry

Food manufacturers looking to enhance competitiveness and attractiveness are adopting more efficient and sustainable methods to meet rising consumer demand. Airgas food industry specialists will showcase the company's broad range of sustainable solutions at the 2020 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) Exhibit #B3851 in Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center from January 28-30, 2020.

Customers can learn about ways to control waste as well as the carbon intensity of their food production process:

• Dairy or hog farm manure can be upgraded from biogas to biomethane - available to circularly use onsite or to sell to energy providers - using Air Liquide's proprietary and customizable biogas conversion solution.
• Wastewater generated on-site can be treated with CO? instead of hazardous acids.
• Airgas will also share new ways to prevent feed from combusting due to extreme heat ? an emerging issue given longer heatwaves ? and deter costly and dangerous grain silo fires.
• Airgas local safety specialists and Total Accesstm Telesales associates can collaborate with customers to reduce disposable usage and convert to more sustainable safety products.

Freezing and packaging techniques from Airgas can be adopted to prevent spoilage, enhance food safety and reduce waste:

• Modified atmosphere packaging using Airgas' self-calibrating tri-gas-mixing panel can easily connect to bulk or MicroBulk tanks for agility to adjust mixes, as well as record and report detailed gas mix accuracy. This process helps improve the quality of food, prevent spoilage and reduce food waste.
• Adopting stainless steel lined dry ice bins can aid in quality control initiatives.
• Freezing with liquid nitrogen reduces moisture loss associated with mechanical freezing, increasing product yield with no additional ingredients or inputs.

New transportation and delivery formats will help Airgas customers solve efficiency challenges:

• Chilling meat to transport for further processing or to end customers using Airgas' novel box chiller with dry ice (CO?) not only reduces water consumption but eliminates contaminated water disposal as the CO? sublimates leaving no wastewater at the bottom of the chilling box or in the floor of the truck or cold storage.

Bill Baker, Vice President - Airgas Business Development, Service Markets and Safety, commented: "Customers can look to Airgas not only for our breadth and depth of food industry products and expertise but for emerging innovations and solutions that can help transform and optimize operations. Working together, we can make modest enhancements with significant operational impact and find more sustainable ways to operate."

Airgas, Inc.

Airgas, an Air Liquide company, is a leading U.S. supplier of industrial, medical and specialty gases, as well as hardgoods and related products; one of the largest U.S. suppliers of safety products; and a leading U.S. supplier of ammonia products and process chemicals.

Dedicated to improving the performance of its more than 1 million customers, Airgas safely and reliably provides products, services and expertise through its more than 18,500 associates, over 1,400 locations, robust e-Business platform, and Airgas Total Access® telesales channel.

As an Air Liquide company, a world leader in gases, technology and services for Industry and Health, Airgas offers customers an unrivaled global footprint and industry-leading technology and innovations.

For more information, please visit airgas.com.



A world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 66,000 employees and serves more than 3.6 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 be a leader in 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 21 billion euros in 2018 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.