Clean-Seas WV Plans to Produce Hydrogen & Fuel Oil from Waste Plastics via Pyrolysis Process

Details have not been released as to how clean fuels will be produced.

Condensed from an Article by Steven Adams, Weirton Daily Times, June 8, 2023

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice announced a new economic development project coming to West Virginia taking advantage of state loans and federal tax breaks for new hydrogen projects.

The California-based Clean Vision Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding with the West Virginia Department of Economic Development for the construction of a hydrogen manufacturing facility in eastern Kanawha County. Thus, Clean Vision has created a subsidiary — Clean-Seas West Virginia — filing paperwork with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office.

This will be their first American operation, the new company will take plastic feedstock and convert it to fuels and hydrogen. The company’s goal is to take waste plastics found in landfills and oceans and convert those plastics into ultra-low sulphur diesel, industrial oils, carbon black, and hydrogen.

Dan Bates, the CEO of Clean Vision, is listed as the Clean-Sea’s vice president. The project will be at least a $50 million investment in the state and will create at least 40 full-time jobs. The company plans to be up-and-running by 2024, processing waste plastic at a rate of 100 tons per day once construction is completed and scaling up to 500 tons per day in the future.

Clean-Seas is taking advantage of more than $12 million in economic incentives offered by the state, including $1.75 million in one or more forgivable loans plus tax and employment incentives and tax credits. West Virginia will also join Clean-Sea’s Plastic Conversion Network (PCN) as its Atlantic hub. PCN works to source waste plastics from developing nations for Clean-Seas facilities.

Clean-Seas uses a pyrolysis process to break down waste plastics and plastics that are not easily recyclable through traditional means. The pyrolysis process creates byproducts that can be used for diesel fuels, industrial oils, and hydrogen. The process also creates no-to-low emissions, with facilities able to power themselves once they become operational.

Gov. Justice and West Virginia’s congressional delegations have been actively seeking hydrogen projects since the passage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the $737 billion Inflation Reduction Act.

The West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Working Group — made up of state and federal elected leaders — submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Energy last year to land a regional hydrogen hub. U.S. Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.,were able to insert specific language in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requiring at least one hub to be placed in the Appalachian region.

In September, multiple natural gas and clean energy companies announced a partnership bring a hydrogen hub to West Virginia. The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, would take advantage of the state’s access to natural gas supplies and existing infrastructure to manufacture blue hydrogen and store the carbon emissions underground.

Another hydrogen project may be in the works for the Pleasants Power Plant near St. Marys. Texas-based Energy Transition and Environmental Management – the owners of Pleasants Power – is in talks with California-based Omnis Fuel Technologies to purchase the plant to produce hydrogen instead of generating electricity from burning coal.

The Inflation Reduction Act also includes clean hydrogen as an allowable project for its investment tax credit program for clean energy projects, recovering up to 30 percent of the costs of the hydrogen program based on the amount of emissions the project produces. Once an eligible facility is online, it can receive a certain amount of the maximum tax credit in year one based on certain criteria.

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