$400 Million West Keating Natural Gas Synthesis Plant Plan Moves Forward
BELLEFONTE – There is a detailed update out from Perry Babb, the man behind the $400-million natural gas synthesis plant proposed for Clinton County’s West Keating Township.
The new company is KeyState Opportunity, based out of Bellefonte. Babb calls the project Pennsylvania’s ‘Next Energy Revolution.’ Babb told therecord-online the project is now in phase one which includes preliminary engineering. Next up is phase two including final engineering. If the proposal stays on schedule, construction would be carried out from 2022 to 2024 and provide 800 construction and permanent jobs.
The facility would be a natural gas synthesis plant that uses the methane in natural gas as a feedstock to produce a range of products used in agriculture, industry, medicines and transportation. The majority of CO2 generated in gas synthesis processes would be captured and used in the making of other products. Babb said more than a dozen similar plants have been built across the US in the last 15 years.
The plant is to be built on a 30 acre site, part of the old 7,000 acre Winner tract in rural West Keating Township.
Babb provided this update:
KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis:
$400,000,000 manufacturing facility, which will convert stranded natural gas into hydrogen, ammonia and urea for transportation, medical, industrial and agricultural uses, as well as capture and sequester CO2 onsite.
– 800 construction and permanent jobs will be created
– $260,000,000 in total annual economic output
– Former coal mining region of chronic unemployment
– Significant international imports to be displaced
UPDATES:
– $84,000 USDA Rural Development Grant Awarded
– $740,000 EDA Grant Awarded
– $14,000,000 Pennsylvania RACP Construction Funding eligible for request.
– $139,000,000 in Pa. Corporate Income Tax Credits under recently passed ‘Resource & Manufacturing Tax Credit/Act 66 and Section 45Q Federal Carbon Storage Credits
– First carbon capture & storage project in Pennsylvania
– Product #1 = First low-carbon, ‘Blue Ammonia/Hydrogen’ produced in the Marcellus
– A commercial scale pilot project for the low-carbon future of Pennsylvania natural gas
– Eligible for DOE Loan Program consideration
– Product #2 = Diesel exhaust treatment (DEF) to remediate 90% of NOx emission for 8 Billion gallons of diesel year, enough for every truck, bus,
boat in Pa./NY/NJ.
– Largest GHG remediation project in the Northeast.
– Historic alliance with building and construction trades unions to pass Act 66
– Economic Impact Analysis performed by the Pennsylvania Manufactures Association
– Significant onsite R&D proposed by Penn State University including enhanced gas recovery
– Significant workforce development efforts proposed with regional universities, Vo-Tech, high schools
– Project illustrates the DOE ‘GHG Reduction through Innovation’ strategy.
– KeyState has been called, ‘A Case Study in Public/Private Partnership’
Babb was asked about the importance of the storing of CO2 emissions. He said that phase of the project is the key point of climate change science, stating, “It is believed too much CO2 warms the planet. It is certain that the increase of regulation around CO2 and climate change presents a challenge to natural gas production. By producing natural gas and manufacturing a product with it and then storing CO2 emission, we hope to make a low-carbon future for natural gas.”
