MONONGALIA COUNTY, W.Va. (WBOY) — A South Korean advanced technology company is exploring West Virginia as a potential site for a hydrogen gasification facility that would create green energy from forest, plant and plastic waste.
According to a press release from Plagen Co., Ltd, the company’s founder and CEO, John Kyung, recently met with West Virginia Department of Commerce Secretary Mitch Carmichael, staff from the offices of U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, and local economic development officials in Kanawha, Monongalia and Jefferson counties.
If West Virginia is selected for the facility, it’s expected to bring as many as 200 new engineering and waste hauling jobs, according to the release.
In the release, Kyung said the company uses the same technology in its hydrogen gasification facilities that Austria, Germany, and Sweden have used for the past 20 years.
He also said that West Virginians have been welcoming and encouraging.
“I look forward to continuing our conversations and putting together the financial, economic and community priorities to make this project a reality,” Kyung said.
Kyung also said the facility would produce an estimated 6.5 million liters per year of green methanol. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the liquid fuel can be blended with gasoline and ethanol to be used in flex-fuel gasoline, and when produced from green sources, results in less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional fuel.
