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The Air Products facility in Port Manatee hosted a moving party of sorts Feb. 4.

That’s when a Liquefied Natural Gas Heat Exchanger assembled in its facility officially hit the road, heading to Sabine Pass in Port Arthur, Texas. It’s one of three identical exchangers Air Products is providing, with the next one scheduled to leave Port Manatee in March. Officially known as a Liquefied Natural Gas Main Cryogenic Heat Exchanger, it’s a massive piece of machinery that unlocks natural gas through a cryogenic liquefying process. That, in turn, makes it economically feasible to ship the gas worldwide.

The one that left Port Manatee on Feb. 4 is 173 feet long and weighed 745,500 pounds, or 372.75 tons. That weight, according to company officials, increases to 1.2 million pounds, or 599.7 tons, when accounting for saddles, beams and the SPMT — self-propelled modular transporter platform vehicle — used to cross the road.

Air Products currently has 280 people working in three shifts at its Port Manatee facility, say company officials, with 15 open production tech positions.

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