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Cracker plant takes shape in Beaver

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell’s ethane cracker plant under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker plant under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker plant under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker plant under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker plant under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County

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Cracker plant

Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell’s ethane cracker plant is under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County. The multibillion-dollar plant has brought in about 6,000 construction jobs to the region and is anticipated to support 600 full-time jobs.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker plant under construction in Potter Township, Beaver County

Almost exactly two years after Royal Dutch Shell announced it would, indeed, build an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, ending four years of speculation as to whether it actually would, the $6 billion project is going full bore.

Every inch of the 340-acre parcel, it seems, is brimming with activity. The work is highly visible to any motorist tooling northbound along Interstate 376 – the Beaver Valley Expressway – just before crossing the Ohio River in Potter Township. Shell is building where Horsehead operated a zinc smelter for many years, on land that required significant remediation.

The entire complex will be large, consisting of the cracker; three units that will convert ethylene into polyethylene pellets; a natural gas-fired power plant; a loading dock; and a wastewater plant.

Manufacturing of plastics is expected to be a major outcome of the operation. A cracker plant “cracks” ethane molecules into petrochemical building blocks that can be refined to create polyethylene, a plastic used for various purposes, from food packaging to automotive parts.

This will be the first U.S. cracker operation outside of the Gulf of Mexico in more than 20 years, and Shell is dedicated to making it state-of-the-art. Shell’s project in Beaver County, which does not have an official name, was first discussed in mid-2012.

Construction is going to take a while. The project is not expected to be operational until the early 2020s. An estimated 6,000 workers will be needed to build up the cracker, which, when completed, will employ 600 in operational jobs.

That time-worn real estate maxim – “Location, Location, Location” – is one reason the Horsehead site in Potter and Center Township was selected. It is conveniently near four modes of transportation: water, highways, rail and air.

Pennsylvania’s offering of tax incentives was a factor as well.

Ethane is the preferred byproduct of a cracker plant. Ethane, propane and butane are natural gas liquids found in some natural gas products in the Marcellus and Utica shales, which run through this region. Interstate 79 is generally regarded as the demarcation line between wet gas (west of I-79) and dry (east). Ethane mainly comes from wet gas.

Those NGLs are separated – “cracked” – before ethane is sent to the cracker, where its molecules are separated and rearranged to create ethylene, the feedstock for plastics and other products.

Construction of the cracker could lead to a needed boost in manufacturing throughout the region. The plant could attract new operations and an increase in chain-supply operators. Concerns have been raised, however, as to whether this region can supply a workforce large enough to handle what may be ahead.

But ample opportunities may be out there for companies and would-be workers from throughout the tri-state.

The Potter plant, ultimately, may not be the only cracker in the tri-state, as the quantity of natural gas in the Appalachian Basin is a strategic attraction. A plant is being considered along the Ohio River in Dilles Bottom, Ohio, in Belmont County.

Beaver County will be getting its long-awaited cracker, which could prove to be a major catalyst.

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