IOF-WV News Articles online
INVITATION TO LEND A HAND
IOF-WV CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF HELPING STATE BUSINESS
Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 11/06/2006
Page: 5A
Byline: CARL IRWIN
THE FIRST Industries of the Future-West Virginia symposium in December 1997 was supposed to be a one-time event to demonstrate that people from West Virginia's aluminum, steel, glass, chemicals, polymers, wood products and metal casting companies would be willing to get together in the same room at the same time to talk about how to be more resource and energy efficient. And they found plenty to talk about.
A retired chemical engineer from Union Carbide told Beri Fox, president and CEO of Marble King, how she could triple the lifetime of refractory liners in her company's glass-melting furnaces.
Ric Love of Century Aluminum was invited to become a partner in an ongoing Department of Energy-sponsored project to improve efficiency of aluminum smelting.
Then-Gov. Cecil Underwood urged the group to "...take the momentum we have, keep it going and accelerate it everywhere we can."
WVU President David Hardesty observed, "...that by being the first statewide IOF symposium, what happens here could be a prototype for what happens around the country." And he was right.
Denise Swink, director of the DOE's Office of Industrial Technologies, brought her enthusiasm for the IOF concept, encouraging the group to "...listen to your customers, ...find out what's going on in other places, and chart your path to the future."
So, with these and many other discussions, IOF-WV was off and running, and an annual symposium seemed to be part of the path forward.
Since that first meeting, IOF-WV teams have written more than 175 proposals involving approximately 250 industrial partners, at least 40 faculty researchers, more than 200 students and approximately 15 national laboratory colleagues. Unfortunately, not all proposals have been funded, but that's a fact of life with competitive research. The total cumulative amount of funding that has been awarded to Industries of the Future-W.Va. projects since 1997 stands at more than $31.55 million and is made up of $19.56 million in federal funding, $10.16 million in non-federal cost share and $1.84 million in state funding.
This funding has led to results such as:
- Development of a software package for predicting energy and cost savings resulting from implementation of new materials in hot-dip steel coating processes at Wheeling Nisshin in Follansbee.
- Plant-wide energy assessments that found $2.5 million per year of energy-saving opportunities for Alcan/Pechiney Aluminum, and $1.4 million per year in energy-saving opportunities for Bayer in New Martinsville.
- An economic and technical assessment of using modern IGCC technology to supply steam, heat, electricity and chemical feedstocks to clusters of energy-intensive industries, such as PPG, Bayer, Columbian Chemicals, CLL Carbon and other companies in the Marshall County area.
- Three prestigious R&D 100 research awards for WVU's Mining Engineering IOF project teams, including JH Fletcher & Company.
- Direct assistance to more than 90 wood products and other manufacturing companies during the past five years through the West Virginia Development Office's Energy Efficiency Program.
- Development and implementation by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection of new guidelines for beneficial use of spent foundry sand - an effort led by the IOF-WV Metal Casting group that has saved metal casting companies such as HK Engine Components hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Development of new corrosion- and wear-resistant alloys with greater than five times improvement in final product quality and plant productivity, like at Special Metals Corporation.
The 10th IOF-WV symposium will convene Tuesday to Thursday at the Charleston Marriott. Attendees will participate in discussions on technology transfer and intellectual property issues. They will talk with state Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, and West Virginia Public Service Commission Chairman Jon McKinney about regulatory and legislative priorities. They will hear expert opinions about future energy prices and technologies. A keynote panel will be led by Brian Kastick, Gov. Manchin's public policy director. The panel on Industrial Energy Choices: A New Paradigm for West Virginia, will feature Charles Bayless of WVU Tech; Derrick Williamson of McNees, Wallace & Nurick LLC; Neal Elliott of American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy; and Tom Casten of Primary Energy LLC.
There will be a gala 10th anniversary dinner and a chance to hear a leading publisher's opinions on U.S. manufacturing - "Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?" As a special treat, Underwood and Swink will be at the dinner.
All are invited to help develop projects and establish a vision for IOF-WV for the next 10 years. Additional information, detailed agendas, and registration forms are available on the IOF-WV Web site, iofwv.nrcce.wvu.edu.
Irwin is director of Industries of the Future-West Virginia.
