Dive Brief:
- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has approved a key construction permit for Clean-Seas’ planned pyrolysis plant. It’s a critical final step for the company’s operations in Belle, West Virginia.
- Clean-Seas, a subsidiary of California-based Clean Vision Corp., is in the process of building a 60,000-square-foot, 50 tons-per-day facility designed to convert “hard-to-recycle” plastics into pyrolysis oil.
- The project has received major pushback from local residents concerned about cumulative air and water pollution impacts and the project’s proximity to area schools. The Ohio River Valley Institute also criticized the permit decision as “rolling back critical pollution safeguards.”
Dive Insight:
The pyrolysis facility is moving forward despite high tensions between area residents and state agencies. The state has offered Clean-Seas several financial incentives to build its facility, including a “forgivable performance-based” state loan of $1.75 million in 2023 and a West Virginia Economic Development Authority bridge loan of $15 million in 2024.
When Clean-Seas first signed its memorandum of understanding with the state’s department of economic development in 2023, it envisioned processing 100 tons per day of plastic starting in 2024, eventually scaling up to 500 tons per day. The company has since scaled back its estimated output and extended its timeline for operations.
Clean-Seas began construction of the planned facility in early 2025. It announced in August 2025 that it had accepted its first delivery of plastic feedstock to prepare for a Q4 commissioning, but the company’s new timeline is unclear. Clean-Seas did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
The company has said it plans to create 40 new technical and operational jobs in eastern Kanawha County, according to its website, with more job openings and expanded capacity “soon after commissioning.”
The facility would be Clean-Seas’ first in the United States. The company acquired its first pyrolysis unit in November 2021 in India, which began operations in early May 2022, according to its 2025 annual report. It also has a majority stake in a 20 tons-per-day pyrolysis facility in Morocco, which it says began operations in April 2023. The company in 2022 also announced a partnership with Arizona State University to launch a facility in Phoenix to convert plastic feedstock into “clean hydrogen,” but updates on that project have not been announced since.
In a July report, the Ohio River Valley Institute, a think tank that has actively opposed numerous chemical recycling projects in the region, questioned Clean-Seas’ operations and its outlook for future operations. Although the company has announced a feedstock agreement, “no buyer for the product has been announced,” wrote Tom Torres, the Ohio River Valley Institute’s chief of staff, in the report.
The institute also questions whether revenue projections for the facility are realistic. Clean-Seas projected a gross revenue of $6.2 million from the facility in 2026 and gross revenue projections of almost $31 million the following year, according to a January 2026 letter to shareholders.
The institute has also criticized the state’s Division of Air Quality for approving the permit, saying it betrayed legitimate environmental concerns from numerous area residents. The division maintains the Clean-Seas project meets all state standards.
In a July letter to the Division of Air Quality, commissioners from Kanawha County echoed concerns from residents living in the county, who worry about the project’s potential impacts on air and water quality, as well as its close proximity to area schools and residential neighborhoods.
The facility entrance is less than 500 feet from an area high school, and about 1,400 feet from public soccer fields, according to Department of Air Quality documents. But the department said emissions wouldn’t surpass requirements and it will enforce minor source pollution requirements.
Residents also worried about how a pyrolysis plant would add to emissions from existing industrial sites nearby, such as those operated by Chemours, Optima Chemical and Covestro, particularly because the facilities are in a narrow river valley that could trap pollution due to atmospheric temperature inversions.
“The Upper Kanawha Valley already contains numerous industrial operations and transportation corridors that affect local environmental conditions,” commissioners Ben Salango and Natalie Tennant wrote. “Residents have therefore questioned whether emissions from the proposed facility have been evaluated not only in isolation, but also in combination with emissions from existing industrial sources throughout the valley.”
In its written response, the department said air impacts would be “well within protective ambient standards, even during stagnant valley inversion events.”
During a public meeting about the permit consideration on July 15, other residents expressed distrust that the company would take their health and safety seriously, with one resident noting “Industry after industry have left West Virginia poisoned… and we’re tired of it,” the West Virginia Gazette Mail reported.
Clean-Seas’ West Virginia project is moving forward amid larger proposed regulatory changes that could affect the chemical recycling industry and its permitting process, specifically for pyrolysis plants. The U.S. EPA under the Trump administration has been outwardly supportive of chemical recycling technologies as a way to boost the economy.
The U.S. EPA has proposed clarifying that certain pyrolysis technologies used for chemical recycling purposes “are not forms of incineration” under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has also advocated for changing regulations to make it easier for pyrolysis plants to operate.
Plastics industry groups have long called for regulatory changes that would classify chemical recycling as manufacturing and not a waste management activity, saying it would make regulations more consistent across the country.
But environmental groups have long fought against the reclassification, saying it would allow the industry to bypass important, and more stringent, air regulations. These groups have also said the chemical recycling industry’s scale and potential benefits are overexaggerated.
Several other chemical recycling projects have failed to move forward in recent months.
Braven Environmental announced in May that it would no longer pursue plans to open a pyrolysis facility in Texarkana, Texas. That project had received state assistance under a state tax abatement program.
Brightmark, another company with a pyrolysis facility, announced earlier in August that it would pause its plastics-to-fuel operation in Indiana, citing the need for a “comprehensive evaluation” of facility technology. That company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025.
