ULSAN < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

SK Geo Centric Co. (SKGC), the chemical unit of chip-to-construction conglomerate SK Group, on Wednesday began construction of a plastics recycling plant as it seeks to develop the business into a new growth driver.

SKGC and its three global partner companies -- Loop Industries, Inc. from Canada, PureCycle Technologies, Inc. from the United States, and Plastic Energy Ltd. from Britain -- held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 1.8 trillion-won (US$1.4 billion) plastics recycling facility in Ulsan, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the company said in a statement.

Ulsan, a major industrial city in South Korea, is home to SKGC's refining affiliate SK Innovation Co.'s refining and chemical cluster, the Ulsan CLX.

"Faced with climate change and challenges in the chemical industry (such as tougher price competition with China), SKGC is opening a new chapter (with the plastics recycling plant project)," SKGC President and Chief Executive Na Kyung-soo said.

Once completed, the ARC will be capable of recycling about 320,000 tons of plastic waste a year, and the Korean chemical industry will be able to "make a leapfrog once again" based on the plastics recycling business, he said.

KGC aims to complete the construction of the ARC by the end of 2025 and start its operations in the following year.

Loop Industries and PureCycle Technologies made an investment in the recycling cluster, while SKGC pays for the use of Plastic Energy's license on its plastics recycling technology at the plant.

The ARC will be built on 215,000 square meters of land -- a size equivalent to 22 football stadiums -- inside the 8.3-million-square-meter Ulsan CLX, the company said.

The ARC will be composed of three major chemical recycling facilities: depolymerization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics or polyester, high-purity polypropyliene (PP) extraction and pyrolysis, it said.

Executives from Loop, PureCycle and Plastics Energy said their plastics recycling technologies will help SKGC realize a "circular economy" in a press conference held in Seoul on Tuesday ahead of the plant's groundbreaking ceremony.

A circular economy turns waste into resources and offers a solution to problems associated with landfills and other waste disposal.

"Europe has traditionally led the way on the circular economy, but with the Ulsan ARC, Korea is showing that Asia may catch up or even overtake Europe as this project is unique in combining different types of technologies to recycle many different types of plastic," said Ying Staton, vice president of Plastic Energy specialized in the pyrolysis process.

Pyrolysis is a technology that converts plastic waste into crude oil through high-temperature heating with limited oxygen. Plastic items, such as baby bottles and interior materials for vehicles, are made using crude oil.

By diverting plastic from incineration, chemical recycling will help to reduce carbon emissions from the incineration of plastics, lessen plastic pollution and also create a more sustainable business model for the petrochemical industry by enabling them to create more recycled plastics, she said.

The depolymerization facility in Ulsan "is planned to save over 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year when compared to the manufacturing of fossil fuel based PET resin," Loop CEO Daniel Solomita said. "This is equal to the removal of over 85 million liters of gasoline consumption or over 828 million kilometers driven by a gasoline car."

PureCycle's PP extraction process not only helps divert waste from contaminating oceans or languishing in landfills but also gives used plastic a new life by enabling it to be used again and again, reducing reliance on single-use plastics, PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson said.

For extended partnerships, SKGC said it will build additional plastic recycling plants with Loop and Plastic Energy.

With Plastic Energy, SKGC has agreed to build their second plastics recycling plant here in Dangjin, 78 kilometers south of Seoul, and will develop additional plants across Asia.

With Loop and French waste treatment company Suez SA, SKGC has already selected a site in Saint-Avold for its plastics recycling facility to produce virgin-quality PET products from 2027.

"Two additional (third and fourth) plants with Loop are under consideration in the Asian region," SKGC said without elaborating.


kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr

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Source: Yonhap News (November 15, 2023)