MOSES LAKE — Norco’s air separation plant in Moses Lake opened this week, all while juggling the tasks of shipping product and making it through a plant start-up.

Norco President Ned Pontious called the week “a typical plant start-up. You have little bugs you’re working out, with getting the equipment calibrated.”

“We’re getting operators trained,” he explained Thursday. “We’re moving some more drivers from our Nampa (Idaho) location to help support distribution of our product in the Northwest.”

The closest similar plants are located in the Seattle area, but are not operated by Norco, he said. The Moses Lake Norco plant is unique to Eastern Washington.

What makes the Moses Lake plant state of the art is a new design on the distillation technology and how the air is distilled, he explained.

Also, the computer control system for the plant can be run from a laptop computer if needed, he said.

More than 30,000 of Norco’s customers purchase the gases made at the Moses Lake plant, according to the company.

“We ‘harvest the sky,’ by freezing the atmosphere and separating it into oxygen, nitrogen and argon,” stated Norco CEO Jim Kissler.

Nitrogen aides food processing and packaging companies with freezing.

Argon is bought by steel fabrication for welding. Oxygen is utilized by hospitals and medical offices.

“Norco’s new air separation plant has the capacity to fill the needs of these industries,” Pontious stated.

Between three to five employees work at the facility, where 150 tons of liquefied nitrogen, 150 tons of liquefied oxygen,  and 7 tons of liquefied argon are made daily.

In the future, the plant will be a distribution center for about 20 long-haul truck drivers.