Buckhannon’s industrial landscape could be bolstered by two promising projects now under consideration — including a first-of-its-kind venture in the United States — potentially bringing new jobs and millions of dollars in revenue to the region.
Buckhannon-Upshur County Chamber of Commerce members learned about these potential developments during a visit to SEFPRO’s Corhart Refractories this week. Corhart plant manager Albin Thomas detailed ongoing efforts to attract additional Saint-Gobain businesses to the area.
“Nothing is definite yet, but we are trying to see if we can attract more Saint-Gobain businesses to the area,” Thomas told chamber members.
Corhart produces specialized ceramic bricks used in highly advanced glassmaking businesses worldwide, making things like sleek and damage-resistant smartphone displays possible. One of the proposals would involve recycling used bricks to retain the raw materials.
“The new business is called Valoref; it’s not a Corhart business, but it’s part of the Saint-Gobain holding group,” Thomas said. “We make bricks for the glass industry, and at the end of their [lifespan], there are still parts of that brick left, so this business is primarily focused on taking all those bricks, processing [the material], and then selling it back into the market.”
If Valoref finds a home in Buckhannon, it would be their first location in the United States. The SEFPRO subsidiary currently has locations in Europe and other parts of the world.
Thomas applauded Upshur County Development Authority Executive Director Brandon Tenney, B-U Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tammy Reger and city elected officials for acting quickly on the proposal. Buckhannon City Council approved a five-year, 100% tax incentive during their March 20 meeting.
“All the incentives are helping, and hopefully, together, we can attract more and more Saint-Gobain businesses to the area,” Thomas said. “Currently, [Valoref] is open in different parts of the world, but we are still missing one in the U.S., so it’s a very significant and more futuristic business that’s really focused on recycling. It’s moving in the right direction.”
If Valoref comes to Buckhannon, their target goals include reaching $8 million in sales and a profitability of approximately 10% after five years.
“It’s moving so quickly,” Thomas said. “I was mentioning to [Mayor] Robbie [Skinner] that we asked for something, and in two days, we had it. Corporate had to ask us to slow down.”
“Before we started the project, we were like, ‘Maybe the city – the government machinery – is going to take its time,’ but we were really able to get things done in about a month,” he added. “We had everything we needed, and now we have a corporate team looking at it. Again, thank you for all the support from the chamber.”
Thomas said the second project under discussion would involve establishing a biogas plant in West Virginia.
“This is something we are slowly working on with the city as well as in some neighboring counties,” Thomas said. “We use a lot of natural gas here, and Saint-Gobain has a very ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, so it’s very important that Corhart find a way to be carbon neutral by that time. It’s not like we are anti-coal or anti-natural gas, but that’s the way the world is moving, and we want to be sure we are ahead of the game.”
Thomas presented a chart showing that Buckhannon produces approximately 600 tons of organic waste each month.
“We’re trying to collect all the waste numbers to see what’s organic waste, what’s inorganic waste, and how we can sort and separate it,” Thomas said. “The end goal is to find out if we can use organic waste digesters. We have some very good researchers from national labs who want to try their latest technologies to extract the gas, which we can use for Corhart — and for everything else — so it will be another interesting endeavor that we can hopefully work on.”
Utilizing a biogas plant would also help Corhart save money on disposing of its waste.
“We spend around $73,000 on disposal of our waste, so if we can recover this, it would be huge,” Thomas said. “The people in the city were supportive. Everybody working for the city was upfront with the waste numbers, so they were also really interested.”
