The company Gaz Industriels de Province (GIP) was founded in 1922 by Oxylhite, a company created in the early twentieth century, specialising in the production and sale of oxygen and of the equipment used to produce it. It had taken over the French business of the Brin Brothers, which had been founded in Paris by Brin’s Oxygen Company of London, a global firm better known today as the British Oxygen Company (BOC).
During the years 1910 to 1914, Oxylhite developed the hydrolith, hydrogenite and silicol processes for the production of hydrogen, and also began production of electrolytic hydrogen.
It quickly gained such experience in this field that in 1915 the Ministry of War gave it the task of building an electrolysis station using an instantaneous power of 4,000 kW. In its day, this was the largest facility of its kind in Europe.
The first unit producing hydrogen via electrolysis under the GIP name was delivered in 1922 to a foreign government.This unit was built from a series of “open” monopolar tanks.
In 1947, as a result of the increasing demand for hydrogen in order to meet the needs of its clients, GIP began the production of dipole “filter press” electrolyzers. “The advantage of this new technology was that it tripled production capacity with respect to the monopolar method, while taking up the same amount of physical space.”
During the 1960’s the Oxygène Liquide industrial gas group, (which was specialised in the production of oxygen and acetylene) had no experience in hydrogen production. It therefore decided to acquire Gaz Industriels de Province in order to widen its field of operations.
Fully aware of the potential market for hydrogen in the meteorology field, Oxygène Liquide decided to set up a division within its group. This was to be the “GIP” division.
In 1988, the French gas production group Air Liquide became very interested in the possibility of acquiring Oxygène Liquide, but France’s strict anti-trust laws made it possible for the American Air Products group to gain a presence in Europe through its acquisition of Oxygène Liquide and all of its divisions.
Keen to focus exclusively on its core business (the packaging of industrial gases), Air Products soon decided to spin off its subsidiary divisions, followed in 1994 by the GIP division.
As a result, GIP became a private independent company, and was renamed SAGIM (Société d’Application des Gaz pour l’Industrie et la Météorologie).
Between 1994 and 1996, SAGIM diversified into various fields such as supplying equipment for the production of nitrogen, oxygen and air for special applications, but also the assembly of gas compression and purification units.
In 1996, SAGIM joined forces with the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro Electrolysers AS, a company specialised in the production of high-capacity electrolytic hydrogen generators for more than half a century. Thanks to this alliance, SAGIM is today able to offer its clients a complete range of hydrogen generators.
During the year 2001, fully aware of the advances being made with technologies such as the fuel cell — long viewed as an ideal energy source for the future — SAGIM decided to enter this market sector. It began by setting up a partnership with the American company Hydrogen Burner Technology, which manufactured equipment used to produce hydrogen from natural gas (the so-called reforming process).
In 2002, in association with NEL-Hydrogen (formerly Norsk Hydro Electrolyzers AS), SAGIM decided to get into this new market niche by creating innovative concepts for electrolytic hydrogen generators, as well as by combining these systems with renewable energy sources such as solar energy or wind power.
SAGIM works for France in 2015 and 2016, by installing two BPMP 500-7 generators (one in Trappes and the other in Brest).
Currently, SAGIM’s Chairman and CEO Bernard Cutillas is the company’s majority shareholder.
