The story below appears in today’s Charleston Daily Mail.

By George Hohmann
Daily Mail Business Editor

The Dow Chemical Co. plans to invest about $40 million in its South Charleston plant over the next four years, said Jim Guidarini, head of Dow’s West Virginia operations.

“A lot of investment is going on in the site,” Guidarini told the South Charleston Economic Development Committee on Tuesday. “There is no gigantic project. It’s all small things – a couple of million dollars here and there. Things like refurbishing infrastructure, eliminating (production) bottlenecks, some safety upgrades.”

Dow has four manufacturing units at the South Charleston plant plus an extensive infrastructure.

“It’s exciting for us,” he said. “We have not invested a whole lot of money over the last five years in that site. Now we’re preparing to be ready for the long term.”

South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens said, “That’s good news for us.”

Dow currently has about 250 employees at the South Charleston plant and “we are still by far the biggest occupant of the tech park,” with about 190 employees there, Guidarini said.

In addition, Dow has six manufacturing units at Bayer CropScience’s Institute site. Bayer CropScience employees currently operate those units. As previously announced, Dow is in the process of hiring its own operators. “That should be 75 to 90 people but they won’t be truly new employment for the area,” Guidarini said. Rather, some workers will be Bayer CropScience employees one day and Dow employees the next, he said.

Mullens asked Guidarini about the opportunities presented by the development of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. Useful chemicals are removed from natural gas with a “cracker” – a multi-billion-dollar facility. Officials believe a cracker could rejuvenate West Virginia’s chemical industry.

“I know a number of groups are working hard at it – the Charleston Area Alliance, the governor’s (Marcellus to Manufacturing) Task Force, the Chemical Alliance Zone,” Guidarini said. “There’s a big upside and a great potential. I wouldn’t hazard to guess the likelihood. You’ve got to have a big chunk of land and a lot of infrastructure. I think there are viable places for it in West Virginia.

“I think in the Kanawha Valley we’re likely to see some downstream plants. We don’t have enough real estate in South Charleston for that. Bayer is pushing this because they do have the real estate for it, at Institute and New Martinsville.”Dow has a power plant in South Charleston that can burn coal or natural gas. Following the meeting, Guidarini confirmed that the coal-fired portion of the plant will be shut down later this year. He cited the cost of environmental compliance. “It costs too much money to operate it and natural gas is cheap right now and is projected to be cheap for a long time,” he said.The power plant is used primarily to make steam, which is used in Dow’s chemical processes. “We have enough capacity, without that boiler, to provide the steam needs for the site,” he said.A carbon-capture pilot project was built next to the coal boiler several years ago. It draws carbon dioxide from the coal-fired plant’s flue gas. Shutting down the coal boiler means the current phase of the carbon-capture project is coming to an end.”It was supposed to be a two-year project and it started in April 2009,” Guidarini said. “It’s been a successful demonstration of the technology. Dow is talking with (project partner Alstom) about continuing uses.”As previously reported, Dow has a sales agreement for Building 6000 at the tech park. “It’s not sold yet,” Guidarini said. “We have a sales agreement but we don’t have a sale yet. We’re hopeful that by the end of the summer that sale has closed.”Guidarini praised South Charleston for its business-friendly policies. “We have good businesses in South Charleston,” he said. “The climate looks good for the future. Our plants are running, with few exceptions, pretty much full out.”