The newest chemical plant in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley is only a few months away from going into full production. Construction is nearing completion at the new Kureha plant at Belle. The facility is being built to produce a bio-degradable polymer to be used in a wide array of commercial applications.

Despite the economy, the marketability of the product hasn't been affected.

"Kureha is committed to getting this material on the market," said Plant Manager Tom Provost. "Right now, it's not available."

The key raw material for production of the polymer is made at the DuPont Plant next door in Belle. During the coming months, equipment at the facility will undergo testing.  Presently the material for use in the testing are being trucked a few hundred yards, but the proximity to the DuPont operation was the biggest factor in the Kureha location.

"They have the key raw material we need, glycolic acid to make our product poly-glycolic acid," said Provost.  "That's a main driver of why we're here."

The partnership between Kureha and DuPont is further nestled in the utility support and site services for the new plant provided by the larger neighbor.

Building construction is complete and mechanical installation is about 95 percent done.   Provost says the plant still needs piping and other mechanical tooling to be finished and there will be several rounds of testing to fine tune the equipment.  All of those processes are expected to be done in August and full commercial grade production should begin in the 4th quarter.

Kureha has about 30 locally hired chemical operators already on the payroll being trained.  Another 15 employees have been brought to the region from the pilot plant in Japan.   Provost says once in full operation about 45 Kanawha Valley residents and five-Japanese will be on site to handle day-to-day duties.

wvmetronews.com