About Seifollah Ghasemi
Seifollah Ghasemi, chairman, president and CEO of Air Products, has continued to advocate for the development of hydrogen as a solution to climate change, stating that "the only way to address the issue of CO2 emissions in the world is to convert to hydrogen." He has described Air Products as "the largest producer of hydrogen in the world" and said the company is "taking actions right now" by building industrial-scale facilities to produce clean hydrogen. Ghasemi has emphasized the need for government support, arguing that "the energy transition will not happen without the direct support of the governments" and that policymakers should focus on encouraging end customers to use clean energy rather than providing handouts to producers. He has also encouraged young people to "keep the heat on the policy makers" on climate issues.
On the company's specific projects, Ghasemi discussed the Neom project in Saudi Arabia, which he said will produce about 650 tons of hydrogen per day, and noted that Air Products is a co-investor in the $5 billion initiative. He stated that the company had committed nearly $16 billion in growth projects by 2020, ahead of its 2022 target. Ghasemi has also described a "stepwise" progression for hydrogen, with gray hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons continuing today, followed by blue hydrogen with carbon capture, and ultimately a transition to green hydrogen produced using renewable electricity. He has said that "it is totally impractical to think that we can get to green hydrogen for all of our energy users in the next 10 years or 15 years" and that blue hydrogen is a necessary intermediate step.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Seifollah Ghasemi's recent appearances.
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Transcript (1 segments)
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Seifollah Ghasemi0:06
My name is Seifollah Ghasemi. I'm chairman, president and CEO of Air Products, which is a public company registered in the United States of America. We are the largest producer of hydrogen in the world. So as a result, anytime there is a conference related to hydrogen, we want to be there. Today particularly, I'm very honored that they had asked me to be on the panel to discuss about hydrogen future, what we are doing about hydrogen, why we are involved in hydrogen. Therefore I had a chance to have that interview and I'm very glad to be here. It's not just me; we have a pretty large contingent of our people here. We have a booth here and more than 10 of our people get to participate in the whole discussion with the government. All we need to do something about climate change. The only way to address the issue of CO2 emissions in the world is to convert to hydrogen that have a significant impact. I talked about the need for the governments to be supportive of that because the energy transition will not happen without the support, direct support of the governments. The third thing that I talked about is that we do have the technologies, the know-how to take action today. Therefore that is why my company is taking actions right now to address. As a result of the industry working together, we were able to work with the government and get the IRA legislation done, which is a significant climate change legislation that is going to go a long way to help with the energy transition. So by the industry working together, we can coordinate the activities, but most importantly is try to be a voice and a force to explain to the governments that we do have the technologies, we can take action. Help us help the world. The key initiatives that we are taking as a company is that we are actually building industrial scale facilities to produce the clean hydrogen. My company is investing $2 billion in doing so. We are creating the supply, and now we are working with the government to help us create the demand by encouraging the users to use the clean energy, although it might be more expensive, and it will be more expensive than the dirty energy that they use. I really encourage the young people to keep the heat on the policy makers, because people like me are not going to be around another 100 years, but the younger people are going to be, and it is going to be their world that is going to be seriously affected if they don't take action.
