Wyoming Innovation Center Receives ‘Overcoming Adversity’ Award

The Wyoming Innovation Center, a coal commercialization facility located in northeast Wyoming’s “C-Valley” region, announced Monday that it has been granted the ‘Overcoming Adversity’ award in the small division category by the Mid-America Economic Development Council. 

The award recognizes a project or best practices a community, region or state utilized to overcome a challenge, such as budget, supply chain disruptions, covid-19 setbacks or natural disaster.

The 9.5-acre site is home to companies and researchers developing commodities like asphalt, graphene, graphite, agricultural char, carbon fiber and more — using coal and coal byproducts.

It features two buildings and seven demonstration sites for pilot plants, where private companies and researchers will work to advance coal-to-product and rare earth element processes. The region is a testbed for new and proven products produced from coal because of its 165 billion tonnes of recoverable coal.

The project received a $1.5 million grant from the Wyoming Business Council and a $1.46 million matching grant from the US Economic Development Administration. It also received funding from both the City of Gillette and Campbell County.

Facing challenges from covid, supply chain disruptions, weather, and other factors, the project was completed later than planned, but still within budget. The facility was completed in June 2022 with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by local, state and federal officials.

Read the full blog at Mining.com