For decades, coal was big business in northeastern PA. And thanks to one company that’s exploring useful products that can be made from the byproducts of burning coal, it coal could end up putting even more people to work today.
Advanced-Tec Materials in West Hazleton, south of Wilkes-Barre, is marketing a variety of wares made from coal-combustion waste, including facial skin cream and shoe insoles (they’re unique because they retain heat, notes company VP Steve Schleicher). But its focus now is on an ash-derived foam to be installed in security doors. In combination with a soy compound and some other ingredients Schleicher won’t name, the ash creates a fireproof insulation that’s safer than the polyurethane-based materials commonly used now. The polyurethane catches fire more easily and gives off toxic fumes during a blaze.
“It’s basically fire foam,” Schleicher says. “That’s what they’re filling their doors with.”
He says Advanced-Tec has lined up customers in the fire- and security-door industries, and those in the home-building sector are also interested.
The company is set to receive a $182,000 grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority for equipment to mass-produce its foam. Schleicher says Advanced-Tec is also collaborating with Ecopur, which makes the soy derivative, to move a plant from Mexico to Hazleton.
Besides the insulation foam, Advanced-Tec is developing a coal byproduct-based ointment to treat ulcers and a soil substitute designed for green roofs.
Source: Steve Schleicher, Advanced-Tec Materials
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen