Work progressing on Westwin’s pilot plant project

Work on the mezzanine area of Westwin Element’s pilot plant is expected to begin this week, after completion of steel work in the plant’s central processing area last week.

Construction has been under way at the southwest Lawton site for weeks, with steel structure for the 53-foot-high control process area done last week, said Project Manager A.J. Arends. Arends said he expected all steel work to be done by the end of the month. Work also is progressing on the 20-inch water main installation project that will supply water to the plant. That $2.44 million project, coordinated by the City of Lawton, is being done by M&T Septic & Backhoe, with a 90-day completion time, city officials said.

Arens also said all the permits needed for the processing, to include air quality permits issued by the Department of Environmental Quality, have been completed for the pilot plant. Those permits were just part of the series of permits needed for the plant, ranging for those needed for construction (issued by the City of Lawton) to the plant’s processes (issued by state and federal officials). The final piece in the process was a permit needed for the generator, which was to have been in place last week, Arends said.

That means all but the final fire marshal inspection and the Certificate of Occupancy has been obtained for the pilot plant. Both are part of the City of Lawton’s construction process and can’t be done until construction is done, Arends said.

As the permitting process is winding down for the pilot plant, Westwin CEO KaLeigh Long said she expects the process to ramp up in coming weeks for the permits needed for the full-scale refinery. It will be a much longer process for the commercial refinery, she said, adding that in the worst case scenario, it could take 24 months to obtain the air quality permits from federal officials (Westwin is predicting about 18 months). Long said the application process will begin as soon as Westwin has its Letter of Intent from the State of Oklahoma, a document that formally cites the state’s support of the project.

Fred Fitch, chairman of the Lawton Economic Development Authority, described the permitting as a “stair step process,” meaning a series of permits are needed for the series of actions that will create a pilot plant or refinery.