Celanese Corp. in Giles County begins to modernize its facility

Celanese Corp. broke ground this morning on a $150 million project to wean itself off coal-powered energy in favor of more environmentally friendly natural gas.

The switch is a big step toward clean energy, but local officials seem more excited just to see the county’s largest employer show intentions of sticking around for a while longer.

The plant has used coal-fired boilers to power essential machinery since it opened near Narrows in 1939. Today, it employs more than 1,000 workers and is one of the leading producers worldwide of acetate tow, a material with various industrial uses.

But as the federal government continues to battle climate change with new emissions standards, Celanese’s old coal-fired boilers haven’t been able to comply with new laws. So the company had a choice: spend money to invest in natural gas, which is considered the cleanest fossil fuel, or shut down the plant and move to where regulations are less strict.

“Like any good corporation, we looked at the options, the alternatives of do you make this product elsewhere?” said Jon Mortimer, vice president of manufacturing and operations for Celanese. “And our evaluation was, this is still a great place for us to do business, a place we want to invest in.”

But complying with the new emissions standards won’t be cheap.

Celanese will spend $150 million to shut down seven coal-fired boilers and replace them with six fueled by natural gas. To supply the equipment, it has signed contracts with two gas companies that will run a 16-mile pipeline through the mountainous region to connect the facility to a natural gas supply in West Virginia.

The project will provide 150 jobs during construction and create 22 permanent positions once the new boilers are up and running. The new permanent jobs will pay an average salary of $100,000.

The change will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 35 percent, or 300,000 metric tons annually, the company said. According to an Environmental Protection Agency calculator, that’s equivalent to taking 62,500 cars off the road for a year.

If Celanese follows up on its plans, state and local governments will chip in to the tune of $7 million in grants and tax breaks.

About $4.5 million of this government help will come from Giles County, which has offered to offset some of the taxes Celanese would normally have paid on new machinery and tools for the facility.

From an economic point of view, these incentives are a small price to pay to retain Celanese and the 1,000 jobs it brings to the region.

“Had they [Celanese] not made this initial investment to switch from coal to natural gas, it’s possible these jobs could have ended up halfway around the world at another plant,” Del. Joseph Yost, R-Blacksburg, said. “That would have been a significant loss for the county.”

The switchover won’t offer the facility any kind of future cost savings, but that’s OK because the decision wasn’t a financial one, according to Mortimer.

“It’s the right thing to do and it’s just the right time,” he said.

“So we’ll remove pieces of equipment that have been in service for a long time and done admirable service for us and get some new stuff in that will hopefully last for another 75 years.”

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