SKC to work with city of Ulsan in business for pyrolysis oil from plastic waste

•  Signing an MOU for investment in the business of turning waste into eco-friendly resources ··· aiming to produce plastic raw materials, using plastic waste

•  SK picglobal to build the largest facility in the country for the production of pyrolysis oil from plastic waste

SKC (President Lee Wan-jae) and SK picglobal (a chemical business in which SKC invests) are to work with the city of Ulsan to launch a business of producing eco-friendly pyrolysis oil, the largest of its kind ever attempted in the country. The ultimate aim of the business is to to turn the pyrolysis oil into plastic raw materials.

In a ceremony held at the Ulsan City Hall on December 14, SKC signed an MOU with the City of Ulsan (Mayor Song Cheol-ho) for investment in the business of turning waste into eco-friendly resources, specifically in the production of pyrolysis oil from plastic waste. Under the MOU, SKC and SK picglobal, which is a joint chemical business venture with the Kuwait PIC, are to contribute to the local economy, through investment in the relevant facilities, while the city of Ulsan is to provide support in the matters related to the investment-related approvals, authorizations, and incentives.

Each year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste, including vinyl, are thrown into the sea. Some people say that the volume of the plastic waste will be greater than the volume of fish in the seas by 2050. In 2019, SKC became the first Korean business to join in the AEPW (Alliance to End Plastic Waste), in which global businesses like BASF, Dow Chemical, etc. work together to find solutions to the problem of plastic waste. SKC and SK picglobal noted the pyrolysis in plastic waste, and the city of Ulsan came to join in the effort.

SK picglobal intends to build a facility producing pyrolysis oil from plastic waste, using a land parcel sized of 50,000 ㎡ near its Ulsan factory, investing about 100 billion won. Upon completion, it will be a facility handling 60,000 tons of waste vinyl, the largest single facility of its kind in the country. For this, SK picglobal is working with global businesses outside the country that are equipped with the capacity for technology commercialization. It expects that the work for the facility will be completed by 2023.

The newly built factory, which operates the process for the backwards production of plastic and vinyl, will produce 35,000 tons of eco-friendly pyrolysis oil each year, using plastic waste, including unrecyclable vinyl. The oil will be used as boiler fuel at SK picglobal’s Ulsan factory, but will also be used as raw materials for plastics with high added value, like naphtha, when the factory can remove impurities in the future, thus starting a virtuous cycle of turning plastic waste into the production of plastics.

Commenting on the matter, Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho said, “We welcome the plan set up by SKC and SK picglobal for investment in the business of turning waste into eco-friendly resources. We, at the City of Ulsan, will provide all the administrative support for their investment, as their plan corresponds to the government’s strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”

As for SKC President Lee Wan-jae, he said, “At present, there is a drastic increase in the volume of disposable waste amid the COVID-19 situation. The signed MOU will be the beginning of a virtuous cycle of invigoration of the local economy, through the production of pyrolysis oil, using plastic waste, and then using it for the production of raw materials for plastics. We are committed to putting the idea of ESG (Environment-Social-Governance) into practice.”