In the first year since SunCoke Energy's Middletown plant started operating at full capacity, there's been no shortage of coke, community involvement or controversy.
The USD 400 million facility, which is owned by Illinois based SunCoke Energy, was built to supply the steel industry and primarily AK Steel, with coke, a key product used in the steel making process.
It's done that by creating nearly 600,000 tonne of coal this year, while also bringing scores of jobs to the region, organizing a volunteer program to encourage local students to graduate and make good life decisions and donating to area causes and events.
The majority of them self reported that but there have also been complaints from residents who live near the site and a number of environmental violations.
Those infractions were inevitable to Ms Lisa Frye president of SunCoke Watch, who first caught wind of SunCoke's designs on 157 acres along Yankee Road in February 2008, when the city of Middletown sought to rezone the site.
Ms Frye said that "My expectations were that there would be problems because there are inevitably are going to be when you're dealing with a coking process that has unknowns factored into that. That was our argument from the beginning, is that's why you don't put this in a neighborhood when you're dealing with the level of environmental issues that you're dealing with that."
She said that she is grateful that the first year of operations have been characterized by company officials being responsive and allowing its community advisory panel to continue beyond the plant's opening.
She added that "They have been open to feedback, whether they've wanted to hear it or not. That's been the biggest blessing of the CAP, to have that open forum where I can come and represent part of our community and confront them sometimes, listen at other times and share information at other times."
She further added that "There's not one night that I drive home and I look off in the distance beyond my home and it looks like an amusement park, but there's nothing amusing about it. It's so bright and you see the white emissions coming from the plant."
Mr Barry Racey, a company spokesman said that "AK Steel's long term supply agreement with SunCoke is an important part of our company's strategic goal to more fully integrate our raw material supply. In particular, the new SunCoke Middletown plant is playing a key role in the competitiveness of AK Steel's Middletown Works."
Mr Racey said SunCoke Middletown's state of the art operation is now providing AK Steel with a steady, cost competitive supply of high quality, metallurgical grade coke, which is critical to fuel AK's nearby Middletown Works blast furnace."
Additionally, SunCoke's Middletown plant is utilizing waste process heat from the facility to provide a portion of Middletown Works' electrical power.
