SKC Collaborates with Ulsan City on Eco-Friendly Pyrolysis Oil Project for Waste Plastics

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SKC and SKC's chemical business investment company SK PIC Global are collaborating with Ulsan City to promote the largest-scale eco-friendly pyrolysis oil project in South Korea. The ultimate goal is to produce plastic raw materials from pyrolysis oil made from waste plastics.

On the 14th, SKC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a new eco-friendly resource circulation business investment with Ulsan City at Ulsan City Hall, agreeing to promote an eco-friendly resource circulation project that produces industrial pyrolysis oil from waste plastics. SKC and SK PIC Global, a chemical business joint venture between SKC and Kuwait PIC, will contribute to realizing a regional circular economy through investment in eco-friendly resource circulation facility plants, while Ulsan City will support permits, approvals, and incentives related to the new investment.

Every year, 8 million tons of plastics such as vinyl flow into the ocean. It is predicted that by 2050, discarded plastics in the ocean will outnumber fish. In response, SKC became the first domestic company to join the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), which includes global companies such as BASF and Dow Chemical, in 2019, and has been exploring solutions for waste plastics. SKC and SK PIC Global focused on pyrolysis of waste plastics and aligned their intentions with Ulsan City.

SK PIC Global plans to invest approximately 100 billion KRW in a 50,000㎡ site near the Ulsan plant to establish an eco-friendly resource circulation facility plant producing pyrolysis oil. The facility will be capable of processing 60,000 tons of waste vinyl annually, making it the largest single facility in the country. To this end, SK PIC Global is cooperating with overseas global companies possessing commercialization technology. They plan to start construction quickly and complete it in 2023.

The new plant, which operates the process of making plastics and vinyl in reverse, will produce 35,000 tons of eco-friendly pyrolysis oil annually from non-recyclable vinyl and other waste plastics. Initially, the pyrolysis oil will be used as boiler fuel at SK PIC Global's Ulsan plant, but in the future, by improving impurity removal levels, it will also be utilized as high value-added plastic raw materials such as naphtha. This will establish a circular economy where plastics are made from waste plastics.

Song Cheol-ho, Mayor of Ulsan, said, "We welcome SKC and SK PIC Global's investment in Ulsan's eco-friendly resource circulation business, which aligns with the government's 2050 carbon neutrality strategy," and promised, "We will spare no administrative support necessary for the investment."

Lee Wan-jae, President of SKC, said, "Amid the significant increase in disposable waste due to COVID-19, this MOU will be the first step in revitalizing the regional circular economy," and added, "We will strengthen ESG practices by producing pyrolysis oil from waste vinyl and other waste plastics, and further establishing a circular economy that produces plastic raw materials."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.