Linde plc is a global multinational chemical company founded in Germany and, since 2018, domiciled in Ireland and headquartered in the United Kingdom. Linde is the world's largest industrial gas company by market share and revenue. It serves customers in the healthcare, petroleum refining, manufacturing, food, beverage carbonation, fiber-optics, steel making, aerospace, material handling equipment (MHE), chemicals, electronics and water treatment industries. The company's primary business is the manufacturing and distribution of atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, rare gases, and process gases, including carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, ammonia, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.
The company was formed by the 2018 merger of Linde AG of Germany (founded in 1879) and Praxair (founded in 1907 as Linde Air Products Company) of the United States. The resulting holding company was incorporated in Ireland, with principal executive offices in Woking, UK.
The company is a member of the Hydrogen Council, a group of companies investing in hydrogen vehicles. The company expects hydrogen vehicles to compete with electric vehicles and has invested in wind powered plants that convert water to hydrogen.
The company is ranked 463rd on the Fortune Global 500 and 187th on the Forbes Global 2000.
Operations
The company has two principal business areas: gas (industrial gases and medical gases), and engineering, procurement, and construction.
Gases
In the industrial gas area, the company uses the brand names Linde, AGA, BOC, TIG, Mox-Linde Gases, Afrox, Sigas and PanGas. HiQ is used as an identifier for high purity and premium specialty gases across all of these business brand names.
In the medical gas area, the company uses the brand names Linde Gas Therapeutics, AGA Medical, INO Therapeutics, Linde Homecare, and Farmadomo.
Linde Gas supplies industrial gases, medical gases, specialty gases, refrigerants and other chemicals. Depending on the gas and the quantity required, these may be supplied in portable high-pressure gas cylinders, in liquefied form by road tanker, from on-site gas generators or in gaseous form via pipeline to large customers. This division has four operating segments, Western Europe, the Americas, Asia & Eastern Europe, and South Pacific & Africa. These segments are subdivided into eight Regional Business Units (RBUs). The Gases Division also includes the two Global Business Units (GBUs) – Healthcare (medical gases) and Tonnage (on-site) – and the two Business Areas (BAs) – Merchant & Packaged Gases (liquefied and cylinder gases) and Electronics (electronic gases).
The product range includes hydrogen, acetylene, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, shielding gases for welding applications, noble gases and specialty gases, oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, all of which are manufactured in Linde's air separation plants.
Linde Healthcare provides pharmaceutical and medical gas products and services for the healthcare industry such as oxygen therapy, aerosol therapy, anaesthesia, and gas for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, sleep apnoea and pain.
Linde Engineering
Linde Engineering designs and builds large-scale chemical plants for the production of industrial gases including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen and carbon monoxide, as well as large plants associated with the processing of natural gas, LNG, Liquefied petroleum gas and the manufacture of olefins. The Engineering Division develops process plants in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business worldwide.
The group has more than 1,000 process engineering patents and 4,000 completed plant projects.
The product range includes: Air separation plants Ethylene Cracker Units Liquefied natural gas and Natural-gas processing plants Hydrogen and synthesis gas plants Chemical plants Adsorption and membrane plants Cryogenics plants Carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide plants Furnaces, Incineration and heaters Plant components
History
On 21 June 1879, Carl von Linde founded the Gesellschaft für Linde's Eismaschinen Aktiengesellschaft to develop further his work in developing mechanical refrigeration systems for the brewing and food industries. Following success in this market, he moved on to developing lower temperature systems resulting in 1895 in a patent covering the liquefaction of air. Out of this work his company developed equipment for the separation of air and other gases. Linde's process was patented in 1902 and immediately exploited by the first large-scale air separation plant installed in Linde's works in Höllriegelskreuth, near Munich in 1903.