Air Products has acquired advanced adsorption technology assets for its generated gases product lines from Xebec Adsorption, the company said late Thursday.

In this acquisition, Air Products said it purchased the technology, intellectual property and know-how related to structured adsorbents, beaded adsorbents, and rotary valves from Xebec, a publicly-traded Canadian company specializing in adsorption technology headquartered in Blainville, Quebec.

Air Products said it is not disclosing terms of the acquisition.

"This acquisition will strengthen and differentiate our current offering portfolio and gives us immediate access to this innovative technology," said Victoria Boyd, general manager of global generated gases at Air Products.

"Adsorption process technology is a core competency of Air Products and a key component of our gas generation plants that produce significant revenues,” she added. “The acquisition moves Air Products' adsorption technology platform to a unique proprietary position compared to our competitors."

Monty Alger, chief technology officer at Air Products, noted that "the technology will allow for smaller footprint plants and higher process efficiencies for customers, along with other sustainability benefits."

Advanced gas separation technology uses solid phase adsorbents to purify gases.

Adsorption systems are part of the front-end pre-purification technology for air separation units (ASU) for water and carbon dioxide removal, hydrogen-carbon monoxide syngas purification, vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) oxygen, and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) nitrogen generation.

"Air Products has achieved very high adsorption unit performance by applying advanced process cycles to systems using traditional adsorbent materials,” said Alger. “Examples would be our world class hydrogen business and leading VSA oxygen technology. This technology acquisition also provides an offering foundation to enter new gas clean-up and purification markets.”

As part of this technology acquisition, Air Products said it will acquire more than 100 patents with significant focus on areas directly related to Air Products' existing business interests.

Air Products also has acquired Xebec's technology center and testing facilities in Burnaby and Surrey, both located in British Columbia, the company said.

Terms of the deal also include a grant-back license to allow Xebec to continue to sell its systems, predominantly in the biogas, natural gas and associated gas purification markets.