by WVVA
MERCER COUNTY, W.Va. (WVVA) – In Mercer County a business plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into producing hydrogen from local coal.
Tim Hawks, a managing partner with a company called TnT Hydrogen says the business has plans to place multiple hydrogen producing coal plants in Mercer County. The Montcalm/McComas area is being planned as the first site.
Hawks says the coal will be coming from Cornerstone Mining, which he says has more than 100,000 acres of reserve coal available. It’s coal that produces more hydrogen than coal in other parts of the country.
“It has unique properties and we put it in a heated boiler vessel. Heat it to 1,200 degrees with the absence of oxygen so it doesn’t burn. We capture the gases and we have solids that are left over,” said Hawks.
