Frontieras breaks ground on $850 million West Virginia facility, and NAM was there for the turning of the shovels.
by David Jones
“Today is more than a ceremonial turning of dirt,” remarked West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner on April 2, as he channeled the spirit of President John F. Kennedy in explaining why Frontieras was bringing its $850 million FASForm facility to Mason County. “It’s the beginning of something ambitious, something difficult, and something worth doing. This project represents one of the most significant industrial investments in our state and will help return the U.S. to an industrial superpower.”
Warner went on to relate the facility and Frontieras’ efforts to the recent Artemis II lunar flyby mission. “[Frontieras is] taking the coal mine today and using it to build the world of tomorrow. And that’s not an easy thing to do. Last night, America launched the Artemis II, as Senator Capito just mentioned, sending humans back to lunar orbit for the first time in more than half a century.
“That is a hard problem. It requires precision, discipline and understanding, and yet we pursue it because it makes our country and our world a better and more hopeful place to live. President John F. Kennedy understood that truth, six decades ago, when he said, ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’
“That spirit, the great American willingness to confront hard problems, built the modern world.”
That same spirit inhabited the groundbreaking ceremony of Frontieras North America’s flagship facility in Point Pleasant, W.Va., along with the promise of jobs, new coal markets, and a vital demand buffer for the regional mining industry. The 183-acre site, which sits along the Ohio River, aims to process 2.7 million tons of Pittsburgh No. 8 coal annually in a revolutionary process that “cracks” coal into valuable materials while reducing contaminants from coal combustion.
Matt McKean, Frontieras CEO, explained the benefits to Mason County, including the $1 billion per year in annual revenue and clean technology that will feed treated water into the Ohio River.
The importance of the facility to the state and the immediate region was detailed in the presentations, promising important support for a coal industry that has struggled with political, cultural and economic shifts in the past two decades. Not only will it bring more than 2,000 construction jobs and at least 200 full-time positions when fully operational, but a 10-year agreement with American Consolidated Natural Resources (ACNR) will provide a reliable outlet for coal production. The economic benefit for West Virginia and the Appalachian Region will be wide-reaching.
That impact isn’t just regional, though. Frontieras’ solid carbon fractionation (FASForm) process changes the calculus on coal use, treating it as feedstock for other materials. Through the fractionation process, outputs include diesel fuel, jet fuel, hydrogen, low-sulfur carbon, ammonia, and sulfur-based fertilizers.
“It is going to jump-start a whole universe of advanced carbon products and future and new uses of coal,” said Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.
Since the process is a closed-loop process that does not involve combustion, the new facility will not create the fly ash or massive CO2 emissions typically associated with coal use. The plant will also be powered by the hydrogen produced through fractionation – one of the first industrial facilities that will be powered by its own hydrogen.
Taking a page from the petrochemical industry, Frontieras shifts towards a refinement model for the coal industry where the mined product is, more than just fuel for power plants, the precursor for a multitude of products.
In the United States, this fits into the Trump administration’s view of coal as a critical mineral because it can form the keystone of a supply chain for materials that are often sourced outside of the US. Coal’s American abundance makes it an attractive bridge from the current energy economy to something cleaner while leveraging the material for use in everything from pharmaceuticals, modern medical materials, construction, food production, and even green building materials.
Along with remarks from Matt McKean and Kris Warner, the ceremony also featured statements from Frontieras Chief Techonology Officer Joe Witherspoon; U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.); West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton; and West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey.
Political and cultural headwinds remain, but what Frontieras offers is a first step toward a cleaner, more complete future for coal.