Financial, environmental concerns loom over Clean-Seas Belle site permit application

Critics of the project also allege a potential conflict of interest from West Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, who has supported legislation inviting the kind of industrial process the Clean Vision company plans to use, being listed as a project consultant in the permit application.

“[It] brings the threat of toxic air pollution and chemical fires in Belle into focus,� Rachel Meyer, Ohio River Valley field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, a national air quality advocacy group, said.

Plant planned to produce millions of gallons of oil annually

Received by the state Department of Environmental Protection on Aug. 20 from Clean Vision subsidiary Clean-Seas West Virginia, the application states Clean-Seas plans to construct a plastics pyrolysis plant where it would convert plastic to an oil as a precursor to new plastic and ultra-low-sulfur fuels, lubricants and other products.

Pyrolysis is the thermochemical breakdown of materials by heating them in the absence of oxygen — in this case, plastic material into oil, gas and residue.

Manhattan Beach, California-based Clean Vision said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month Clean-Seas West Virginia, formed on April 1, 2023, is its first plastic conversion network facility planned for the U.S., following its launch of facilities in Morocco and India.

The filing said the Belle facility planned for 2700 E. Dupont Ave. is expected to convert 50 tons per day of plastic feedstock and expand to more than 500 tons per day within three years of starting operations.

The plastics conversion plant would be constructed at the site of a former 84 Lumber sales building. Work would include a delivery dock, pyrolysis oil loading into trucks, oil storage in frac tanks, a flare, backup generator, offices, a baghouse for recovery of airborne plastic, and parking.

The plant would produce 3.96 million gallons per year of oil heavier than diesel fuel, according to the permit application.

The permit application says the facility may begin operating in 2025 or 2026, subject to change based on availability of equipment from manufacturers.

'Substantial doubt' firm can 'continue as a going concern'

In January 2024, the West Virginia Economic Development Authority approved a $15 million loan with a five-year term for Clean Vision to build its plastics conversion facility, indicating in an approval document the operation came with an overall $65 million price tag. 

Then-Gov. Jim Justice signed off on the loan approval for the project, which the state categorized as a “high impact development project.� According to state code governing the EDA, a “high-impact development project� is a project that the governor has requested in writing be approved for financing totaling at least $50 million. The entity undertaking the project also must privately invest at least $50 million.

Clean Vision said in its SEC filing it received a state loan that would be forgiven if it employs 40 or more people at the facility and that the balance of the loan was $1.75 million as of June 30.

Clean-Seas West Virginia entered into a 10-year lease agreement beginning March 1, 2025 with ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä-based Quincy Coal Company for 62,650 square feet of property at the site, according to Clean Vision’s SEC filing, with monthly base rent of $16,667 for the first 12 months, increasing each year after. The total rent for the full lease term is roughly $2.4 million, according to the filing.

Clean Vision’s total liabilities of roughly $36 million far exceeded its total assets of just under $21.7 million as of June 30, according to the SEC filing. The filing reported the company had an accumulated deficit of nearly $52.5 million.

“The Company has not yet established a source of revenue sufficient to cover its operating costs,� the filing warns.

Clean Vision’s ability to raise additional capital through stock issuances or debt financing is unknown, the filing said, adding that more financing and a “transition� to “attainment of profitable operations� were needed for the company to keep operating.

“These conditions and the ability to successfully resolve these factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern,� Clean Vision’s filing said.

Clean Vision’s filing cautioned “[T]here can be no assurance� its financing efforts will result in “profitable operations or the resolution of the Company’s liquidity problems.�

Clean Vision said in the filing its subsidiary Clean-Seas, Inc. acquired its first pyrolysis unit in November 2021 for use in a pilot project in India which began operations in May 2022. Clean-Seas started operating at a pyrolysis facility in Morocco in April 2023 after it acquired 51% interest in Moroccan company Ecosynergie S.A.R.L., according to the filing.

The Morocco operations had generated roughly $63,000 in revenue as of June 30, per the filing. Clean Vision reported it didn’t generate revenue from any other sources.

Clean-Seas says it's a piece in the plastics puzzle 

Clean-Seas West Virginia president John Yonce asked for a list of questions to be submitted in response to a request for a phone interview. After the Gazette-Mail submitted questions, Yonce referred the Gazette-Mail to the DEP permit application and a document of answers to frequently asked questions.

Yonce said the company is eager to begin operations and divert plastic from landfills and incinerators.

“In addition to this clear environmental benefit, we are also excited to deliver good, clean energy jobs, which will economically and socially benefit a region that has been impacted by trends away from fossil fuel use,� Yonce said in an email.

“Our plastics crisis is a big, complicated puzzle, requiring a comprehensive response,� Clean-Seas says in its response to frequently asked questions, or FAQs. “While Reduction is the first R toward solving the puzzle, Clean Seas is filling in an important piece.�

Clean-Seas says in its FAQs document any waste it generates will be transported for disposal by licensed, insured waste haulers to destinations permitted to accept waste, claiming a “significant net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.�

Clean-Seas West Virginia hosted a groundbreaking for its Belle facility on June 30.

'Design is in process'

But the project’s critics say it’s too close to area schools for comfort.

The site of the planned facility is approximately a half-mile from Riverside High School and 0.8 miles from Midland Trail Elementary School.

Morgan King, West Virginia Citizen Action Group climate and energy program manager, called Clean-Seas “the latest in a long line of greenwashed corporations trying to profit by polluting West Virginia.�

Greenwashing is a term used to describe misleading the public to think a business or other entity is doing more to benefit the environment than it is.

Pre-approved plastic feedstock would arrive at the Belle site via tractor-trailer trucks and small box trucks, according to Clean-Seas West Virginia’s permit application. Plastic would be shipped in bulk boxes, sacks or bales, with feedstock to be unloaded into the facility building and manually fed into a pyrolysis system designed to operate on a continuous basis except for planned shutdowns.

The industrial process would yield plastic pyrolysis oil sent to storage before shipping, according to the permit application. Oil would be stored in eight 21,000-gallon portable storage tanks with an 18,000-gallon storage capacity maximum to allow space for thermal expansion of material. Trucks would enter the facility to transfer oil into approved tanker trailers supplied by recipients of the product.

The planned oil storage tanks and truck loading concerns Meyer, who said those operations create opportunities for leaks and fumes in the community.

The facility would only accept onsite or during processing there feedstock that is plastic unmixed with solid or hazardous waste, the company has indicated, adding that feedstock typically consists of items like containers, trays, cups, films and bags.

Clean-Seas West Virginia’s plastic pyrolysis system would use natural gas and propane, both with odorants for leak detection.

When asked to list all emergency relief devices and safety relief valves and similar openings that would vent only under abnormal conditions, Clean-Seas West Virginia responded that its “design is in process� and that its responses would be updated as designs are completed.

Facility could emit up to 3,500 tons of CO2 annually  

In July 2024, Ohio River Valley Institute, a pro-renewable energy regional nonprofit think tank, released a report calling “chemical recycling� — using chemicals, pressure or heat to break down plastics to be further reprocessed into plastic — a “false solution� to the problem of plastic contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and posing worker and community risks.

The analysis contended chemical recycling, also known as advanced recycling, ignores health impacts inherent in its processes and diverts attention and resources from solutions that would address growing problems stemming from production use, and end-of-life treatment of plastics.

Another air quality permit application for a pyrolysis-based plastics recycling is pending under DEP consideration for a facility planned in Follansbee by the Brooke County city’s Empire Green Generation LLC.

Clean-Seas West Virginia’s planned operation would have the potential to emit 3,500 tons per year of carbon dioxide, six tons per year of hazardous air pollutants, a category of air toxics known to cause cancer and other significant health impacts, and two tons per year of nitrogen oxides, air pollutants that can damage the human respiratory system and contribute to acid rain.

'Concerning conflict of interest' alleged over Hanshaw link

Clean-Seas West Virginia’s permit application lists Hanshaw as a consultant, including contact information linked to his position as an attorney at ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä-based law firm Bowles Rice.

Hanshaw did not respond to requests for comment. Yonce and Clean-Seas CEO Dan Bates did not respond to requests for comment on Hanshaw’s role as consultant.

Hanshaw, a state delegate since 2014 and House speaker since 2018, has long represented clients in his field of energy regulatory law. Hanshaw attended Clean-Seas West Virginia's June groundbreaking event.

With Hanshaw’s support, the House passed industry-backed legislation in 2022 designed to encourage advanced recycling in West Virginia. House Bill 4084, approved by the House in a 94-0 vote over West Virginia Environmental Council opposition, clarified the state does not consider advanced recycling to be solid waste management or disposal, instead viewing the process as consisting of products to be used, processed and sold.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry group consisting of some of the country’s largest plastics makers, has lobbied for the regulation of advanced recycling as a manufacturing process as opposed to solid waste disposal or incineration.

“It’s a scam that endangers public health and sticks taxpayers with the bill,� King said of advanced recycling.

King called Hanshaw’s consultant role a “concerning conflict of interest.�

“It appears to be in Speaker Hanshaw’s political interest to advance this facility,� King said, “even as it threatens the health and safety of his constituents."

Lawsuit: pyrolysis behind catastrophic injury in Braxton County

A personal injury lawsuit filed in a federal West Virginia court last week underscores the potential safety risk that can come with pyrolysis-based industrial activity.

The complaint alleges a September 2023 explosion that occurred at the Braxton Lumber Company in Braxton County during an experimental phase to determine production processes through pyrolysis resulted in injuries that has left an employee of Range Environmental Resources, Inc., a subsidiary of Cleveland-headquartered Range Impact, unable to communicate or walk.

Brian Mark Loyd, 45, resides in a long-term total care facility in Georgia for non-ambulatory individuals suffering from serious brain injuries after incurring $6.5 million in medical expenses for injuries sustained from an explosion amid production of bio-charcoal with China-manufactured biochar ovens through pyrolysis.

Biochar is a charcoal-like substance, consisting mostly of carbon, produced from agricultural and forestry waste. Pyrolysis is used to convert the organic material into more stable carbon.

The lawsuit, whose named defendants include Range Environmental Resources and Range Impact, alleges Loyd was required to load and operate a biochar oven but was not trained by Range on how to produce biochar through pyrolysis.

The ovens Loyd had to load and operate only had warning labels written in Mandarin, if any, the complaint says, adding that no Range employees knew how to safely produce biochar with the ovens through pyrolysis. The complaint was filed by guardians on Loyd’s behalf.

Loyd was the only person injured in the explosion, according to the complaint.

“This guy's cognizant of what's going on around him. He’s just unable to function on his own whatsoever,� Michael Romano, a Clarksburg-based attorney and former Democratic state senator representing the plaintiffs on Loyd’s behalf, said in a phone interview.

Range Environmental Resources and Range Impact did not respond to requests for comment.

'The public should be very concerned'

The DEP has not yet invited public comment on Clean-Seas West Virginia’s application, meaning it’s still under agency review.

Meyer wants the DEP to schedule public meetings on the application available at bit.ly/CleanSeasPermitApp.

“The permit application makes it clear that the public should be very concerned about the potential this Clean-Seas facility would have to negatively impact their health and endanger their families,� Meyer said.