Tag: Brian Anderson

NETL Taps WVU's Brian Anderson As New Leader

The U.S. Department of Energy named a new director of the agency’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. The new director, Brian Anderson, comes from West Virginia University’s Energy Institute.

Anderson founded and directed the Energy Institute at WVU. He’s been with the university since 2006. He was heavily involved in negotiating the $83 billion investment from China Energy, announced a year ago this week. He’s been a major advocate for turning the region into a natural gas storage hub, potentially attracting petrochemical and plastics industries to the Ohio Valley.

Anderson will now direct the only national lab that the Department of Energy fully owns, with offices in West Virginia, Oregon and Pennsylvania. The lab is focused on researching a variety of energy-related subjects, such as carbon capture and sequestration, coal, oil and gas technologies, and rare earth elements.

“I am honored and humbled at the opportunity to serve as the director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory,” Anderson said in a press release from NETL. “The work that is being conducted at NETL is critical to advancing technologies that will transform the use and production of our nation’s vast coal, natural gas, and oil resources to protect our environment and enhance our nation’s energy security. I look forward to working with the talented and dedicated team at NETL to continue the lab’s efforts as the gold standard in advancing energy research and development.”

Anderson was born and raised in West Virginia, studied chemical engineering at WVU and went on to get master’s and doctorate degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Commerce Secretary 'Hopeful' First China Energy Project is Near

West Virginia Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher said he is hopeful the first project associated with the China Energy deal will be announced soon.

Speaking to a crowd at the Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference in Morgantown Tuesday, Thrasher said interest is running high. Chinese delegations ranging in size from nine to 29 people have visited the state 15 times, with another visit scheduled next week.

“So, certainly when you look at the level of activity that they’re investing into this, I think it’s hugely substantial and I’m very hopeful it’s going to pay significant rewards,” said Thrasher. “I’m very hopeful in the very near future we’re going to be announcing that first project.”

The nearly-$84 billion deal between West Virginia and China’s largest energy company, China Energy, was announced last November. Since then, few details have emerged since Thrasher and China Energy President Ling Wen signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing as part of the US-China trade mission during President Donald Trump’s November 2017 visit.

China’s largest energy company committed to investing billions in the state’s natural gas industry over the next 20 years. One goal is to make the Ohio Valley region the next petrochemical manufacturing hub in the U.S.

Another speaker at the event was Brian Anderson, director of West Virginia University’s Energy Institute. He said it’s an exciting time to be in Appalachia because the region’s rich shale gas development is “creating the world’s largest renewal in the petrochemical boom.”

“So now here we are in the 21st century with a truly unique opportunity, to not grab what the U.S. Gulf Coast has and bring is up here, but to create the second petrochemical hub here for the United States,” he said.

Proponents of the China Energy investment tout the economic benefits, but environmental groups have expressed concern the creation of a storage hub for natural gas liquids and petrochemical processing plants could contaminate air and water resources.

On their website, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition states: “This project would lead to increased petrochemical industrialization of Ohio River Valley. The experience of people in Cancer Alley of the Gulf Coast region informs us that the grave health risks outweigh the economic benefits.”

WVU Researchers Report, Gas Storage Hub Possibilities Abound

The idea of building a natural gas storage hub in the region continues to gain traction. West Virginia University is set to release a report this week that explores the geologic possibilities of storing liquid natural gas products in underground reservoirs.

Natural gas industry players and researchers gathered this week to hear about results of a new study exploring possibilities of building big underground gas storage systems in the region.

“There is a true opportunity in front of us but time is of the essence,” said MIT alumnus and director of the West Virginia University Energy Institute, Brian Anderson. “We don’t want to let this opportunity slip through our fingers.”

Anderson spoke to about 100 workshop attendees. He reported that the WVU study found three types of geologic formations in the region where gas products like ethane, propane and butane can be stored. The goal, he explained, would be to create reliably-priced, steady sources of feedstock for the petrochemical industry — a move researchers and lawmakers hope would lure industry to the region.

“There have been a lot of innovations in smart manufacturing, efficient manufacturing, and lower environmental footprint manufacturing in the the chemical sector that can now be rolled into a new rebirth of the petrochemical industry in our region,” Anderson said.

He and other industry experts are hopeful that tens of thousands of jobs could come with industry development. They said building a gas storage hub is the first step to making that possible. Anderson said now that areas have been explored where gas could be stored underground, the next phase of research, which has already been funded, is exploring how to engineer such a hub.

Exit mobile version