Key Takeaways
- Frontieras North America has appointed Robert Portz as Vice President of Operations & Engineering, marking the company's first executive-level hire based in West Virginia, where it is building its flagship plant.
- Portz brings more than three decades of refining operations experience across facilities including Ashland Oil's Catlettsburg refinery, Hunt Refining Company, Sinclair Oil's Wyoming complex, and PBF Energy's Toledo Refinery.
- Portz will oversee facility operations development for Frontieras' Mason County plant, including engineering coordination, construction oversight, workforce development, and commissioning.
- The 184-acre Mason County facility on the Ohio River is designed to process 7,500 tons of coal per day, producing diesel, naphtha, jet fuel, hydrogen, FASCarbon™ purified solid carbon, ammonium sulfate fertilizer, and sulfuric acid.
- Portz first became an early private investor in Frontieras prior to joining, after CTO and Co-Founder Joe Witherspoon — a former colleague from Sinclair Oil — described the company's FASForm™ technology to him in 2024.
Frontieras North America Names Robert Portz VP of Operations & Engineering
Frontieras North America, an energy and environmental technology company commercializing its patented FASForm™ Solid Carbon Fractionation process, has announced the appointment of Robert Portz as Vice President of Operations & Engineering. Portz, a Charleston, West Virginia native, becomes the first West Virginian to join the company's leadership team and represents Frontieras' first executive-level hire in the state where it is constructing its flagship plant.
“I'm excited to step into this new role at Frontieras because of the company's bold approach to rethinking energy—transforming abundant resources like coal into high-value products. Frontieras' commitment to delivering abundant, affordable energy while reducing waste and emissions strongly aligns with both my operational focus and my belief in building forward-looking solutions. It's especially rewarding to be part of a team that is challenging industry norms and creating meaningful impact for both the economy and the environment,” said Robert Portz, Vice President of Operations & Engineering at Frontieras North America.
Three Decades of U.S. Refining Experience
Portz brings more than 30 years of refining operations experience spanning several major American facilities, including Ashland Oil's Catlettsburg, Kentucky refinery — one of the largest inland refineries in the country — Hunt Refining Company in Alabama, Sinclair Oil's Wyoming refinery complex, and PBF Energy's Toledo Refinery in Ohio. He holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Ohio University and an associate degree in pre-engineering and applied sciences from West Virginia State College.
Within the industry, Portz is recognised for his role building Wyoming Renewable Diesel Company from the ground up under Sinclair's umbrella — a greenfield operation that generated more revenue than its adjacent refinery in its first year of production. He later served as Technical Manager at PBF Energy's Toledo Refinery, overseeing process engineering, process design, capital projects, DCS operations, and laboratory functions.
Frontieras North America's Mason County Plant
In his new role, Portz will oversee all aspects of facility operations development for Frontieras' Mason County plant, including coordination with engineering firms, construction oversight, workforce development, and plant commissioning. The 184-acre facility, located on the Ohio River, is designed to process 7,500 tons of coal per day through a zero-combustion, closed-loop process that produces diesel, naphtha, jet fuel, hydrogen, FASCarbon™ purified solid carbon, ammonium sulfate fertilizer, and sulfuric acid.
The company's FASForm™ technology is described as a zero-waste, continuous-feed process that converts coal and other solid hydrocarbons into fertilizer, fuels, hydrogen, and industrial carbon, with the West Virginia facility intended to serve as a model for scalable domestic and international deployment.
A Relationship Years in the Making
Portz's connection to Frontieras predates his appointment. He first met CTO and Co-Founder Joe Witherspoon during their overlapping tenures at Sinclair Oil, where the two worked together on refinery engineering projects for approximately six years. After Witherspoon described the FASForm process to him in 2024, Portz became an early private investor in the company's first funding offering, well before accepting the operational role.
“Bob didn't come to us as a skeptic who needed convincing — he came to us as an investor who'd already done his due diligence and wanted to be in the room where it happens. When someone with his track record in American refining puts his name and his career behind a technology, that tells you something. We're building something real in West Virginia, and now we have the right person to run it,” said Matthew McKean, CEO and Co-Founder of Frontieras North America.
