DevelopOhio

Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp.’s R.E. Burger power plant in Belmont County could become the site for a proposed ethane cracker plant, Columbus Business First reports. An executive from FirstEnergy “has confirmed the site will house the plant if Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical Public Co. and Japan’s Marubeni Corp. decide to go through with the facility,” according the article. The multibillion-dollar plant would “take natural gas components from Ohio’s Utica shale play and the Marcellus in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and break it down for use in the plastics and chemical industry.” The Burger plant is semi-retired, and FirstEnergy “plans to fully retire the plant next spring.” President of FirstEnergy Generation James Lash said the company “is moving a machine shop from the Burger site to a spot in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in part because the cracker could soon take over the site,” according to the Pittsburgh Business Times. For more, read the full Columbus Business First and Pittsburgh Business Times articles.