Air Products and Chemicals

Environmentalism has done a tremendous job of awakening the American public over the last ten years to many of the fundamental issues of our times. It is now apparent that, with the explosion of emerging market economies, the energy needs of the world are going to exponentially grow over the next 20 years. Along with the topic of energy, atmospheric gases have come into central focus in the American public. The issue of globalwarming, whether one believes completely in its claims or not, has raised American awareness to level where it's now clear that we cannot continue to release emissions and pollutants into the atmosphere in uncontrolled amounts and expect it to not affect our world.

One such company in the U.S. industrial gases sector that is heavily involved in renewable energy is Air Products and Chemicals(NYSE: AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS). AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS specializes in supplying atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials, and equipment and services worldwide. AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS is very active in the followingmarkets:

• Merchant Gases—AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS delivers gases in bulk supply, usually by tanker or tub trailer, to a large number of industrial and medical customers. Common gases include oxygen, nitrogen, argon, helium, and hydrogen.

• Tonnage Gases, Equipment and Energy — This is similar to the merchant market, except the same gases are supplied to large petroleum refining, chemical and metallurgical customers. Instead of delivering the gases, once a long-term contract is established between the customer and AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS, the company generally builds a facility very close to the customer’s facility and then delivers the product through a pipeline. This aspect of AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS’ business is heavily dependent on long-term contracts, and creates, therefore, a steady stream of business year after year.

• Electronics and Performance Materials — AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS supplies specialty and tonnage gases to the electronics industry for the manufacturing of compound semiconductors and other electronic apparatuses.

• Healthcare — This is a very large part of AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS’ business, as it provides home respiratory therapies, medical equipment and infusion services to hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide.

This is a brief overview of the focus of AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS over the course of its recent business history. Due to its business presence in many foreign countries, AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS’ profitability each year can be affected by volatile moves in the Forex market.

What are the new developments at AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS?

In order to understand new developments at AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS, one must understand the development of the Cap and Trade laws in America. Currently, legislation is passing through Congress that may enact Cap and Trade laws. Basically, these laws will limit the amount of emissions and pollutants companies are allowed to release into the atmosphere. Based on its size and industry, a company will be given a certain number of credits each year that will reflect what level of emissions and pollutants it can release into the atmosphere. Once a company’s credits are expired, it must purchase more from another company who has not used of its credits. The idea behind this law is that it will encourage companies to be proactive in cutting down pollution.

One way that companies will be able to cut down on emissions is by capturing carbon and sequestering it in underground vaults. For example, an underground piping system would first capture the carbon being produced at a company and then transport that carbon to underground vaults where it could be re-used in oil fields and other areas. Underground piping systems are already being created to make this happen.

One of the most exciting developments at AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS is its expansion into the market of providing services to capture and sequester carbon. In fact, in June of 2010, AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS announced it had been selected to receive $253 million of funding from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under the Industrial Carbon Capture and Sequestration (ICCS) Program for its ICCS project in Fort Arthur, Texas. This funding is expected to expand this project through September 2015.

This project will enable AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS to design, build, and operate a system in order to capture CO₂ from its two steam methane reformers that are currently located in the Valero Refinery in Port Arthur. Once the CO₂ is captured and sequestered, it will be transported via a pipeline in order to be used for enhanced oil recovery.

The ability for AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS to position itself as a leader and innovator in the carbon capturing and sequestering movement is a major plus for the company. As the cap and trade legislation bears down, and stricter laws come into being concerning emissions and pollutant control, AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS will have already positioned itself as a leader in the field and may benefit tremendously over the long term. Also, the very nature of this business is long-term. This issue of pollution and emissions is not going to be fading into the distant memory of America. If anything, it will only grow over the next 20 years, so AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS should be positioned nicely to take advantage of this movement.

Trial shows an AIDS gel can protect women

REUTERS - A trial of women in South Africa shows that a gel made using Gilead Sciences Inc's HIV drug tenofovir lowered the rate of HIV infections in women by 39 percent over two and a half years.

It is the first trial to show a microbicide might protect women from the deadly and incurable virus, which has killed 25 million people since the AIDS pandemic started in the 1980s and which infects 33 million today.

Here are some facts about the trial:

* The trial was run by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa or CAPRISA at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.

* It enrolled 889 South African women aged 18 to 40 who were HIV-negative, sexually active, and at high risk of becoming infected with HIV.

* All were given packets of applicators filled with gel and told to insert one dose up to 12 hours before sex and a second no more than 12 hours afterwards.

* Half the women got placebo gels and half received gels containing a very low dose of tenofovir, an inexpensive HIV drug.

* At the end of the study 422 women remained in the tenofovir arm and 421 in the placebo arm, a retention rate of 95 percent, which suggests the gel was not unpleasant to use.

* At 30 months, 98 women were infected with HIV -- 38 of them had been given tenofovir and 60 were on placebo. This is a 39 percent reduction in HIV incidence for tenofovir.

* At 12 months into the study, women who got tenofovir were 50 percent less likely to be infected than women who got placebo.

* 54 of the women became pregnant and delivered 31 babies. None had any congenital problems and the miscarriage rate was normal.

* Blood tests showed the tenofovir stayed in the vagina and did not cause effects elsewhere in the body. This suggests side-effects will be low and also suggests that women who become infected with HIV will still be able to take pills without being resistant to their effects.

* In a surprise finding, researchers said the gel also reduced the risk a woman would get genital herpes by 51 percent.

* The main side-effect was slightly more mild diarrhea in the women who got tenofovir.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox in Washington, Editing by Sandra Maler)

(For more news on Reuters India, click http://in.reuters.com)