“West Virginia’s coals have given us the best performance,” said Bill Easter, CEO of Semplastics. 

Easter is re-imagining the traditional uses of materials like coal to make new high performance products.

He is using West Virginia coal to make a new roofing tile that is lighter, more durable, and less flammable than a ceramic tile.

Easter said that his idea of using coal in manufacturing does not damage the environment.

“So people are concerned about carbon and sequestering the carbon and so with our process, we don’t burn the coal and the coal doesn’t burn. The carbon is sequestered so it does not impact global warming in any way,” explained Easter.

Right now the research and development of the coal product is being done in Orlando, Florida but that all could change, bringing even more jobs to the Mountain State. 

“So you want to be next to the coal. I think West Virginia would appreciate the manufacturing jobs. There is a great opportunity so you can do things that benefit society as well as make money. You really want to do both,” said Easter.

Easter added its a win-win for the future of coal and the environment.

Right now, West Virginia’s coal is making the durable, fire resistant, and super-strength roofing tile but Easter said they have just started scratching the surface when it comes to more goods made with coal. 

“We have been working with the Department of Energy. They have been advising us and providing support to sort of bring it from a test tube out to prototyping and we look forward to working with them to bring it to commercialization and high volume manufacturing,” added Easter.

The next step is to secure Phase 2 funding to progress the development and manufacturing of the x-tile. For more information on Semplastics and the x-tile, visit www.x-tiles.com.