YOUNGSTOWN - For years, SOBE Thermal has planned to use pyrolysis by superheating tires to make synthetic gas at its Youngstown facility, which also provides heating and cooling to downtown businesses.

The operations are now in receivership, but the Ohio EPA pyrolysis permit is still active.

SOBE Thermal is still supplying steam heating and cooling to 28 downtown buildings, but after financial trouble under owner David Ferro, operations are now under court-appointed receivership.

Aside from heating and cooling, Ferro had pyrolysis plans, and the OH EPA gave the green light with a 10-year permit.

That's what worries opponents of the plan.

"We just want to make sure that our health and our safety are number one," SOBE Concerned Citizens Organizer Kayshia Washington said.

The new recei

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