BOC has grown its hydrogen business by 30 per cent each year since the turn of the century. Underlying this surge in growth are environmental concerns and the desire of refiners to extract as much of the most valuable products as possible from increasingly expensive barrels of oil. Oil refiners face tough legal limits on the amount of sulphur allowed in gasoline and diesel fuel while at the same time they have to deal with increasing quantities of ‘sour’ crude, containing five per cent or more sulphur. Hydrogen is the answer. It reacts with sulphur in the presence of a catalyst and the resulting hydrogen sulphide can be removed and safely processed. In 2000 BOC opened the largest hydrogen plant in the southern hemisphere at BP’s Bulwer Island refinery in Australia. In 2002 it built England’s largest hydrogen plant to serve Huntsman’s chemical plant on Teesside. And in 2004 it acquired its first plant serving the petrochemical complex on the Gulf coast of the US. Since then a series of refinery contracts has been won across the US. One of the largest hydrogen plants in north America will supply BP and Sunoco refineries in Ohio. Elsewhere in Ohio BOC is building a further plant to serve Valero, while at Salt Lake City in Utah a new plant will begin supplying hydrogen to Chevron and Holly refineries in 2006. Hydrogen holds the promise of revolutionising energy supply later in this century as sources of hydrocarbon fuel are further depleted. Until then it will play its role, helping to maximise the benefits from each barrel of oil and minimising the environmental impact.