By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite a Wall Street Journal article casting doubt on the future viability of a project in Pleasants County to take coal and create graphite and hydrogen, Pleasants County Commission President Jay Powell remains a cheerleader for the project at the old Pleasants Power Plant.
Speaking by phone Friday, Powell said the Quantum Pleasants, owned by California-based Omnis Fuel Technologies, should be able to show within 30 days whether its proprietary “quantum reformer” technology is viable.
“I’ve been on site last week,” Powell said. “They’re making great progress. We’ll know within 30 days if their concept is where it needs to be. It appears it is. I’ve been told by the experts it is. So, we’ll see.”
The company claims to be able to burn coal at high temperatures without carbon emissions through modules, allowing for graphite to be separated out and the hydrogen to go to the former Pleasants Power Plant for electric generation. Graphite is used in manufacturing and making batteries.
An article published in the Wall Street Journal Thursday highlighted the Quantum Pleasants project, the $200 million investment by famed motivational speaker Tony Robbins, Omnis Fuel Technologies CEO Simon Hodson and his other projects in West Virginia that remain unrealized, a whistleblower lawsuit alleging Hodson and the company were misleading state and federal economic development officials about the Quantum Pleasants project and the lack of any demonstration of the quantum reformer technology.
