SK Global Chemicals to build plant to chemically recycle plastics

South Korea's SK Global Chemicals will reportedly invest 600 billion won ($522.
6 million) to build an integrated plant in Ulsan to chemically recycle plastic waste, meaning the plastic will be completely degraded into raw materials
.

On the 8th, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SK Innovation, South Korea's largest oil refiner, signed an agreement with the Ulsan city government
.
It is planned to build a chemical recycling plant on 160,000 square meters of land by 2025.
After completion, the Ulsan plant will be able to recycle 184,000 tons of plastic waste every year
.

SK Global Chemicals said it will be the largest plastic recycling project in South Korea in terms of investment and land size
.
Chemical cycles break plastic molecular chains, producing substances such as naphtha and crude oil
.
This is a different technique than mechanical recycling, which washes plastic waste and melts it in a way that preserves its molecular structure
.

Mechanical recycling is said to be the more common technology used by South Korean plastic recycling companies, but chemical recycling is the means to produce high-value end products
.
For this large-scale plastic recycling project, SK Global Chemicals cooperated with overseas partners with core technologies in this field
.

In January, the South Korean petrochemical company signed a deal with San Francisco-based Brightmark, which has pyrolysis technology to heat and vaporize plastic waste to produce naphtha, which in turn is a variety of petrochemicals.
base material
.

SK Global Chemicals and Brightmark will jointly build a factory within the Ulsan complex that will convert 100,000 tons of plastic waste into naphtha per year
.
The dedicated production line is scheduled to be completed in 2024
.
The naphtha will be reused by SK Global Chemicals to produce other products
.

Last month, SK Global Chemicals acquired a 10 percent stake in Loop Industries
.
Loop Industries is a Canadian company specializing in depolymerization technology that can recycle PET bottles and polyester fibers into raw materials
.

Loop's technology causes no loss in quality or strength, and can be repeated indefinitely, whereas traditional mechanical recycling tends to cause a drop in the quality of PET
.

SK Global Chemicals and Loop will also build facilities within the Ulsan complex that will recycle 84,000 tons of plastic waste a year from 2025
.
It is planned to gradually expand this number to 2.
5 million tons by 2027
.

Earlier this month, SK Innovation announced that recycling plastic would be a core part of the company's business
.
The Ulsan plant is the first concrete plan announced after the commitment
.

Na Kyung-soo, president and CEO of SK Global Chemicals, said in a statement last Thursday: "The Ulsan plant was the beginning of our idea of ​​producing raw materials from plastic waste
.
Starting in Korea, we aim to one day recycle this plastic.
Take the business to Asia and grow into a global leader in the field
.
"