West Virginia Executive Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 41

Photo by Neal Warren.
building product markets. According
to Ohio University, the global market
for such plastic composite materials is
expected to exceed $8 billion by 2023.
CONSOL has also partnered with
OMNIS Bailey LLC to develop a refinery
that will convert waste coal slurry into two
products: a high-quality carbon product
that can be used as fuel or feedstock for
other higher-value applications and a
mineral matter product that has potential
to be used as a soil amendment in agricultural
applications.
Unlimited Potential
To continue expanding the industry’s
coal-to-product uses, Touchstone Research
Laboratories established Touchstone Testing
Lab, LLC to offer materials and product
testing. The lab’s three locations employee
50 individuals in Millwood, WV; Triadelphia,
WV; and Mingo Junction, Ohio.
“A race has begun between the development
and commercialization of these
next-generation materials and applications
in response to the reduction in the use of
coal,” says Joseph. “We at Touchstone feel
confident that large-volume uses for coal
will be found, which will also increase
the value and, therefore, the selling price
per ton of coal.”
Touchstone Advanced Composites,
another spin-off company of Touchstone
Research Laboratory, produces the molds
used to create fiber airplane parts and
employees about 40 individuals in Triadelphia,
WV. Its materials were used in
the construction of NASA’s solar sail at
“I think we, as a state and
as a country, are coming
to the realization that the
coal-to-products market is
essential not only to the coal
industry but to the advanced
materials of the 21st century.
We are presented with a
challenge to our imagination.
The opportunity in front of
us is to reinvent the way
we think of coal to create
an even better future.”
the Langley Research Center, which could
support future missions in deep space.
“If I want to make a wing out of carbon
fiber for an airplane or rocket, I need a
mold,” says Joseph. “We build the world’s
best molds, and they are made from the
coal-based CFOAM. Coal from West
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make the most advanced aircraft in the
world.”
Touchstone plans to launch additional
spin-off companies in West Virginia in
the next few years, including one that will
produce exhaust systems for large ships
like those used by the U.S. Navy. By using
CFOAM, the new exhaust systems will
reduce their weight by hundreds of tons
and eliminate all the corrosion problems
found in current exhaust systems.
“Think about the history of smokestacks,”
says Joseph. “Going back to
steamboats, they had iron smokestacks.
When those rusted out, they transitioned to
steel, then stainless steel and then titanium.
Today they use a material called Inconel.
There are all these exotic materials. If you
think about the problems ships have, it
rains so much, water gets into the exhaust
system. The exhaust systems can be as
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a way to make an exhaust system
using CFOAM and some ceramic liners
where no part of the exhaust system that
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