Air Liquide SA plans to run a factory near Las Vegas, Nevada that will convert methane from landfills into hydrogen for emission-free transportation applications.

The new facility with an investment of $250 million will have the capacity to produce up to 30 tons per day of liquid hydrogen, sufficient to power about 40,000 fuel-cell vehicles, said Mike Graff, head of Air Liquide’s U.S. operations.

Air Liquide will ship the produced hydrogen to FirstElement Fuel Inc., a California company that operates hydrogen fueling stations. California has about 12,000 hydrogen vehicles registered in the state. Air Liquide expects that the demand for hydrogen as a transportation fuel will surge, particularly in long-haul trucking, as California pushes to decarbonize its economy by 2045. As battery packs big enough for electric trucks add enormous weight, and fuel cells running on hydrogen are far faster than batteries to refuel—a key consideration for truckers.

“Five minutes later, you’ve taken on a full load of hydrogen and you’re back on the road again,” Graff said.

The plant will use landfill gas as its raw material, preventing the methane in the gas from escaping into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. The landfill gas will be purified into renewable natural gas, then hydrogen will be stripped from it using steam reformation. Although steam reformation releases carbon dioxide—another greenhouse gas—Graff said those emissions will be offset by the benefits of keeping the original methane out of the air.