Wyoming Officials Break Ground on New Coal Innovation Center
Wyoming officials broke ground this week on the Wyoming Innovation Center (WyIC), a 5,500-sq-ft coal commercialization facility, in Gillette, Wyo. Owned by Energy Capital Economic Development (ECED), the 9.5-acre site, located in the state’s northeastern coal-rich “Carbon Valley,” will be home to companies and researchers developing commodities like asphalt, graphene, graphite, agricultural char, carbon fiber and more—all of them using coal and coal byproducts.
The WyIC will feature two buildings and seven demonstration sites for pilot plants, private companies and researchers to advance coal-to-product and rare-earth element processes. The region holds 500 billion tons of recoverable coal, making it a desirable testbed for new and proven products made from coal.