Hyundai Oilbank Produces Eco-Friendly Naphtha from Waste Plastic

Producing Eco-Friendly Naphtha by Injecting Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil into Crude Oil Refining Process

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Hyundai Oilbank announced on the 18th that it will produce eco-friendly naphtha by injecting pyrolysis oil from waste plastics into the crude oil refining process.

Starting today, Hyundai Oilbank will first inject 100 tons of pyrolysis oil into the refining process to conduct demonstration research and secure safety, then gradually increase the input amount.

The reason Hyundai Oilbank introduced this pyrolysis oil is that waste plastic disposal has become a global issue. China, the world's largest importer of waste, announced a complete ban on solid waste imports starting this year. The Basel Convention, which regulates the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, has also strengthened regulations related to waste plastics from this year. Now, waste plastics must be processed directly in the country where they are generated.

Hyundai Oilbank's Central Technology Research Institute is studying various production methods for petroleum and petrochemical products based on pyrolysis oil by improving physical properties and removing impurities.

Under current laws, petroleum refiners like Hyundai Oilbank are not allowed to use pyrolysis oil from waste plastics as raw materials in their processes. Accordingly, Hyundai Oilbank applied for the regulatory sandbox system to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) earlier this year, and received approval for a "regulatory exemption for demonstration" in September. Hyundai Oilbank is also proceeding with procedures to officially certify the injection of pyrolysis oil from waste plastics as an eco-friendly product production process.

They plan to obtain eco-friendly certification through international certification bodies such as the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), and the produced naphtha will be sold as an eco-friendly product called "Green Naphtha."

Kang Dal-ho, CEO of Hyundai Oilbank, stated, "We are considering establishing a new pyrolysis oil plant with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons in the future by utilizing the DCU (Decomposition Unit) process, which is uniquely owned by us among domestic refiners."

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