Pike & Ross Counties — Proponents of a new industry and the first new development at the former Piketon atomic plant chatted with the Ross County Commissioners.
Wiley Rhodes, co-founder of “Trillium H2 Power,” and Caitlin Holley, vice president, explained their technology and goals in the Monday meeting.
“Trillium Piketon” is the first development planned for now-vacant land at the federal reservation in Pike County. They now have 80 acres there, will be able to start working on the $1.8B project after they reach 100 acres in the next couple of months, and plan to acquire 250 total.
Rhodes said all the technologies involved are proven – air separation, ammonia production, and silicon production – but Texas-based Trillium has pioneered putting them all together to create an economy of scale. He says they also have the capability of large-capacity carbon sequestration at the site.
Rhodes says they plan to produce 1,200 metric tons a day of clean ammonia and 90 tons a day of silicon metal. Ammonia is usually used in fertilizer, but he says in a low-carbon economy, it is a carrier for hydrogen as an addition to or to replacement for natural gas.
He said it is feasible enough that they offered the Norfolk Southern railroad facility in Portsmouth to convert a diesel-electric locomotive to hydrogen fuel.
Rhodes said that as the A-Plant demolition process nears its end, many of those workers could find jobs with Trillium Piketon.
They are working with SODI and PORTSFuture, which are organizations working on redeveloping more than 3,000 acres that are planned to be available at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site that impacts the designated four-county region of Jackson, Pike, Ross, and Scioto counties.
Trillium Piketon has a website:
“Decarbonizing the US Economy – creating permanent, highly-skilled, local manufacturing and engineering jobs
“A U.S. first-of-a-kind that integrates an air separation unit, a partial oxidation reformer to produce hydrogen, an ammonia and silicon plant and a hydrogen power plant, with carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technology for permanent CO2 geologic storage.”
The website shows they hope to have an 18-month construction phase employing 2,100 – and be operational by the end of 2027 with 280 jobs.
Holley says a social media site should be up in September. Rhodes says they will be part of upcoming “meet the developers” events on September 24th and 25th. Hear them in their own words in the below interview video.
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