PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles isn’t waiting to find out if it will be the recipient of a portion of a $70 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to begin working on a composites recycling technology research center.
Port staff and its partners are forging forward with the process and working on a Plan B for funding, just in case Washington state is not the grant recipient, Port of Port Angeles commissioners were told Tuesday.
Jennifer States, port director of business development, said the port had expected to learn this month whether the state had been awarded the grant but that the decision has been delayed.
She didn’t know when the state would be told of a decision.
Washington state, which applied in June, is one of five to apply for the Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation Institute grant, which could be divided among several regions in the state.
The federal grant would help companies develop new techniques in manufacturing carbon composites for recreational, medical, maritime and any other purpose that developers can imagine.
The grant would be to create a center combining educational, private commercial and governmental partners to find ways to recycle and reuse composites.
Currently, manufacturers pay to have 2 million pounds of composite materials hauled to landfills and sometimes have to classify the material as hazardous waste, with additional steps and costs associated with hazardous waste disposal.
Eventually, it is hoped a recycling process can be found for end-of-use composite products, States said.
Composite recycling is an untapped source of jobs and profit and can be used for anything but aerospace technologies, which have strict rules for composite materials, States said.
She said the Boeing Everett composite wing plant is expected to produce large amounts of composite waste.
“Boeing has offered as much as we can handle,” she said.
States said that when she made a presentation to Boeing executives regarding the port’s current resources, they were quite surprised and asked, “Why aren’t we doing more together?”
Backup plan
The port’s backup plan is a state and locally funded program in concert with Peninsula College and other partners, she said.
States said the plan began with a conversation at a meeting with Gov. Jay Inslee at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center earlier this year.
Inslee has said Port Angeles is the perfect location for the site, States said.
Peninsula College is the only community college in the state with a composites manufacturing training program, and there is already a composites presence in the area and space available to devote to it.
The port already has a 25,000-square-foot space available adjacent to the airport for such a composite recycling center, she said.
It would have to be outfitted in a way for individual companies involved in the effort.
Peninsula College has already proposed to move its composite equipment and training program to the composite recycling site, States said, and the port has an additional shopping list of equipment needed to start the composite recycling technology center.
Commissioners supported the concept.
Commissioner Jim Hallett noted that 50 years ago, no one was recycling tons of waste paper, but today, it is common and often required.
“The potential of potential is so great we must do this,” Commissioner John Calhoun said but added that he was concerned that there was no similar project to use as a model.
Commissioner Colleen McAleer that Europe has dozens of manufacturing research facilities shared by private and nonprofit or educational research partners already up and running — including more than 90 in Germany alone.
“So we are already late to the party,” Hallett replied.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
