WVU Researcher Looks for Way to Convert Shale Ethane to Olefins
Natural gas is a booming industry in West Virginia and the United States, accounting for more than 38% of the nation’s total energy consumption. One West Virginia University researcher is hoping to capitalize on valuable untapped chemicals that come from shale gas, commonly found throughout the Marcellus/Utica region. Madelyn Ball, an assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at WVU’s Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, received $110,000 in funding from the American Chemical Society to conduct research that will convert ethane and propane from shale gas into olefins, a class of chemicals made up of hydrogen and carbon such as ethylene and propylene, that can be used in the production of plastics and other complex chemicals.
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It hasn’t been a problem-free startup for the mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility. We’ve noted some of the more prominent issues as we’ve spotted them in the news. Things like the plant exceeding allowed air emissions (see 
Residents living in the vicinity of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline cryogenic plant in Bulger (Washington County), PA, got a nasty “present” on Christmas morning. Around 7:30 am, residents report hearing an explosion, followed by a fire, at the plant used to separate NGLs (natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane, and butane) from the raw gas stream that flows through the Revolution gathering pipeline (see 
Here in the real world (not the pretend world of leftist radicals who seek to shut down all fossil energy), the Shell ethane cracker finally went online, officially, last week (see 
Earlier this week, Shell announced its mighty ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh) is finally, ten years after first announcing, fully operational and producing plastic pellets (see 
Anti-fossil fuelers continue to pressure the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (and Pennsylvania itself) over the grievous sin of approving the Shell ethane cracker plant project (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has assessed a $670,000 fine plus extra “cost recovery” charges of nearly $30,000 against the Shell Pipeline Company for work done between 2019 and 2021 on Shell’s Falcon ethane pipeline project. The DEP says that a series of inspections showed “failure to comply” with this paperwork requirement and that paperwork requirement. There were a few instances of erosion into “waters of the commonwealth.” But in the end, the DEP acknowledges, “no visual aquatic impacts were observed.” No muddy water. No dead fishies. No dead salamanders. No dead nothing. In other words, the DEP fined Shell for nothing–no lasting impacts on the environment from the work done to construct the Falcon pipeline.
Some 225 hypocritical nutters were whipped into a frenzy by Big Green and its so-called Beyond Plastics campaign during a Zoom call Tuesday night to “prepare” for the startup of Shell’s mighty ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA. It was really quite hilarious. There was talk of nurdle patrols, “sacrifice zones,” and celebrations over defeating Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill. Why hypocritical? Because every single person on the call was using a computer or phone made out of (wait for it)….plastics. The clothes on their bodies and shoes on their feet are made largely from plastics. The cars and boats and paraphernalia they use to hunt down evidence of environmental plastics pollution from the cracker plant–all made from plastics. We wonder, Do they know how stupid they look?
In June, a Shell executive told the Appalachian Energy Innovation Collaborative conference that the company’s Pennsylvania ethane cracker project was 98% done and would be fully online within “a couple of months” (see 
One of the big promises of building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant project is its ability to act like a magnet attracting other petrochemical and manufacturing plants to locate near it, using the outputs of the ethane cracker as their inputs. According to an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Business Times, the great promise of attracting more businesses to the southwestern PA region with the construction of the Shell cracker plant has not, so far at least, resulted in a big influx of new businesses.
RBN Energy’s own Rusty Braziel (the R and the B in RBN) is back with another powerhouse post on the RBN blog site. This one is about the market for ethane. For those new to MDN, ethane is one of the primary NGLs (natural gas liquids) that comes out of the ground along with oil and natural gas. Propane and butane are a couple of other common NGLs produced in the Marcellus/Utica. Ethane is the raw material used to produce ethylene, and ethylene is turned into plastic pellets that are used to manufacture thousands of different products you use every day of your life. The ethane market is, according to Braziel, “in turmoil” right now. Ethane prices are up, almost double since January, and are at their highest level in 10 years. Ethane traditionally has been a waste product for many M-U drillers. Now it’s an important source of revenue.