BURNSIDE - Air Products has put its blue hydrogen manufacturing plant on hold and will sell off the carbon capture and ammonia production parts of the project, according to The Advocate.

In a Thursday earnings call, Air Products CEO Eduardo Menezes said the earliest the company would begin production was 2028 or 2029. When the project was announced in 2021, it was expected to open in 2026.

The company's manufacturing complex near Burnside was to produce blue hydrogen and ammonia and planned to store the carbon dioxide created during the process under Lake Maurepas using injection wells. 

The project stirred controversy in two parishes. In Ascension, some residents worried about emissions and the potential danger of having Sorrento Primary School close to the plant location. Some people in Livingston objected to the carbon capture and storage under Lake Maurepas.

When Air Products did seismic testing of the lake for carbon capture research, residents who took boats out to look at the process were met by an armed guard in a boat who shooed them away. Air Products later said the guard was necessary because of the explosive charges used in the seismic testing.

Menezes said Air Products has stopped spending on the blue hydrogen plant and is in negotiations with other companies for the ammonia production and carbon capture parts of the complex.