YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Projects in Niles and Youngstown are among development initiatives in front of the state controlling board next week.
The Board of Regents is requesting that $600,000 in Third Frontier grant money be issued to Youngstown State University to help fund a partnership with Akron-based Polyflow LLC.
Another proposal from the Ohio Department of Development calls for devoting Clean Ohio assistance funds toward an environmental assessment of former steel mill property in Niles.
The board is scheduled to hear the recommendations at its meeting Feb. 13.
The YSU venture calls for Polyflow to use a patented process that would convert household items such as plastic water bottles and milk containers into transportation fuel and new types of plastics.
YSU would use the money to purchase new laboratory equipment and establish a fuel analysis and testing center at the university.
Executives from Polyflow and YSU officials announced the project last year. Polyflow uses a patented process that takes polymer items generally considered non-recyclable and converts them into liquid fuel. The plastic material is dried and fed into a processor, which uses heat to break up, then reform, molecules. These new molecules are able to produce petroleum that is lighter than crude oil.
Martin Abraham, dean of YSU's science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, college, says the project was awarded a total of $1.6 million in Third Frontier grants, but the money was distributed in two separate funds.
Polyflow received $1 million from Third Frontier, while YSU received $600,000, he says.
"A large part of what we're doing is to set up an analytical lab," Abraham says. Some of this equipment, he notes, could be used to support YSU's proposed Natural Gas and Water Institute, a new program announced late last year that seeks to prepare students for the oil and natural gas industry.
Also, the controlling board will consider a request by the Ohio Department of Development to approve $292,628 in Clean Ohio Assistance funds for a Phase II environmental assessment at the former Republic Steel property in Niles.
The state development office recommended the project in January 2011.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.