September 9, 2023 - Last week’s announcement by WV Gov. Jim Justice, that Omnis Fuel Technologies is investing $800 million in the Pleasants Power Plant, and when the expansion is complete creating upwards of 600 jobs, is big big news for the coal industry. The plant is located at Willow Island in Pleasants County, WV and directly employs 154 workers and thousands of temporary workers during maintenance periods.

“This is massive news for the coal industry, and all those in it, as the goal at this 1,278-megawatt plant is to produce power from coal with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions”, said Bill Reid, Publisher and Managing Editor of Coal News, Inc. the publisher of CoalZoom.com. “This project has the potential of being the first-step in seeing the coal industry return to a production level of over a billion tons per year.”

Bill Reid

The Pleasants Power Plant was restarted last week and will soon return to normal operations with the aim of converting the plant by adding high-performance burners to use hydrogen during the next 20 months. The plant will generate enough electricity to sustain one million homes. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorized the transfer of Pleasants Power to Omnis Fuel from Energy Transition and Environmental Management and the plant has been renamed Quantum Pleasants.

Omnis Fuel will use coal to produce hydrogen, graphite and water vapor, which will double the amount of coal it will need to operate the plant annually. The Omnis Fuel goal is to make clean hydrogen and high-grade graphite from plentiful, low-cost hydrocarbons (coal) as well as leveraging and retrofitting existing power plant infrastructure. Thus, the company will enable high-density energy storage with low-cost and abundant graphite.

Pleasants Power Plant Renamed to Quantum Pleasants

The Omnis Fuel patented technology is called “Ultra-High Temperature Omnis Quantum Pyrolysis” (OQP). This restructures hydrocarbons at very high temperatures exceeding 5,500 degrees Fahrenheit generating the hydrogen fuel and utilizing the existing hydrocarbon supply systems and power plants. Therefore, jobs are preserved in current industries while at the same time additional employment is generated in new clean technology markets.

Omnis Fuel is planning to retrofit existing coal-fueled power plants, with Quantum Pleasants being the first, by building OQR at or near the plant site. Electricity is generated from burning the hydrogen results in the graphite being produced. More than double the coal quantity is needed. The products produced include the electricity to be sold into the national grid and the graphite to be sold into graphite markets.