Alpont completing $62M chemical plant

Alpont LLC, a subsidiary of Pennsylvia-based Interstate Chemical Company, is nearing completion of its $62 million chemical facility on a 35-acre site in Oregon, Ohio. According to JobsOhio, the company wanted to expand to better serve its customers in Canada and in the Midwest and needed a location with easy access to both customers and a large supply of low-cost natural gas.

After considering locations in Pennsylvania, company officials decided to look in Ohio. In early 2016, they contacted the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP) in search of an appropriate site. RGP brought in JobsOhio, and together, they found a location in Oregon just east of Toledo across the Maumee River.

According to JobsOhio, the site gives company executives the proximity they want to key customers and major markets and also offers a stable electrical supply and access to a brand-new, high-pressure gas pipeline that feeds from the Oregon Clean Energy Power Plant, which became operational in the summer of 2017.

As Alpont executives evaluated the site, the Ohio EPA worked closely with the company, RGP, and JobsOhio to permit the plant in a timely manner. While the state’s abundant supply of natural gas initially attracted Interstate Chemical, another factor also played a role in helping the company select Ohio: the cooperation of local and State agencies to find and develop a site that enabled the company to get up and running quickly.

“This was a complex project with challenging infrastructure demands. The City of Oregon, RGP, JobsOhio, and the Ohio EPA all worked so well together to find and develop a site that will get us up and running as quickly as possible,” said Lou Razzano, executive vice president, Interstate Chemical Company / Alpont LLC.

To access the high-pressure natural gas line that runs from the Oregon Clean Energy Power Plant, Razzano noted that Alpont, who worked closely with Generation Pipeline, hot-tapped into the 850 PSI line and ran it to the site.

Construction in progress at Alpont’s new chemical plant

The facility will be used to refine natural gas to manufacture methanol, which will be sold primarily in the Toledo marketplace. The company will be also manufacturing two other chemicals – sodium methylate and potassium methylate – that are used as catalysts in manufacturing biodiesel fuel. These products will be sold across the US to various biodiesel manufacturers.

“We have been primarily a chemical distributor with about 30% in manufacturing, and we wanted to expand our footprint in manufacturing. Because of the high-pressure natural gas line that runs up the west side of the property, this site was ideal,” said Razzano.

The project broke ground in May 2018 and Alpont is expected to start manufacturing chemicals in August. Rossford-based Industrial Power Systems (IPS) served as the general contractor for the facility. Oregon, Ohio-based E.S. Wagner Company served as the civil contractor for the project.

Jeremiah Johnson, president of IPS, noted that IPS performed all the heavy equipment setting, module setting, pipe installation, electrical work, equipment alignment, and also performed design/build for the company’s offices and maintenance building, using help from Toledo-based Coger-Shambarger Architects.

When speaking of the construction of the outdoor facility, Johnson said, “It is actually a module facility, so everything was brought up in pre-fabricated modules that contained equipment, piping, and electrical. There was some minimal balance of pipe and electrical to make things connect and set up, but for the most part, I’d say probably 95% of the facility is actually done in modular construction.”

According to Johnson, the modules were pre-fabricated down in Sulfur Springs, Texas.

“There was a lot of coordination with getting the right pieces up here and at the right time. They’re very large pieces and altogether, I think there were about 250 modules all shipped as oversize load pieces. Some skids were 40 feet long, eight feet wide, and eight feet tall, to skids that are 12 feet wide, 12 feet tall, 160 feet long. The challenge is just the coordination to get the right pieces at the right time so you are not going back over something you already constructed. It’s just like building with LEGOs. You are connecting the right pieces first and it’s just a matter of getting the base pieces and building it out from the inside out,” said Johnson.

Other local contractors who worked on the project include: Advanced Tanks; Advanced Industrial Services; Capital City Crane; Romanoff; Integrity Floor; HMR Construction; and AFI Contractors.

According to Johnson, through all trades including electricians, ironworkers, pipe fitters, building makers, and laborers, there were a total of 100 people working on the site. Razzano noted that Alpont will be creating 40 new jobs in the Toledo area as well.

“We’re obviously very grateful that Alpont / Interstate selected the Oregon facility and furthermore selected IPS to provide the majority of the construction. I’ll look forward to a longstanding relationship with them,” concluded Johnson.