SK geo centric one step closer to building Asia's largest plastic recycling plant

SK geo centric CEO Na Kyung-soo, center, and Bruno Guillon, chief commercial officer of Plastic Energy, second from left, take a photo at SK booth for the CES 2023 show. [SK GEO CENTRIC]

LAS VEGAS — SK geo centric is now one step closer to building Asia's largest plastic recycling factory in Ulsan.

The company signed a licensing deal with London-based Plastic Energy to receive pyrolysis technology on Jan. 6 during the CES 2023 show in Las Vegas, with SK geo centric CEO Na Kyung-soo and Bruno Guillon, chief commercial officer of Plastic Energy, attending.

The factory will be located on a 13,000-square-meter (3.2 acre) site in Ulsan, with the aim to complete its construction in 2025. It will have an annual capacity of 66,000 tons, which would be the largest of its kind in Asia.

The plant will be a plastic pyrolysis facility that heats plastic waste to above 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit) to convert it to fuel oil. This process is known to produce high-quality recycled plastics that can be used for bottles and cosmetics.

Additional details of the deal including its size were not disclosed.

SK geo centric said it will also build a 100,000-ton post-processing factory near the plant to remove impurities from the converted pyrolysis oil to make a cleaner oil that can be used in new forms of plastic — which the company calls chemical recycling.

"It is very meaningful to have secured the key technology for recycling plastic, which can contribute to greenness and carbon reduction at CES 2023, a competition for cutting-edge technologies," Na said.

On Friday, the two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to build a joint venture within the year to establish more recycling facilities together in the Asian region, including in the Seoul metropolitan area, China, Japan and other key markets.

This plant will allow SK geo centric to build a complex in Ulsan specializing in recycling plastic waste, which the company calls Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster.

The Korean company invested $68 billion in U.S.-based PureCycle Technologies to cooperate on Ultra polypropylene extraction technology that removes pollutants from waste plastics. SK has exclusive sales rights in Korea and the rights to conduct business in China and Southeast Asia.

SK has also been working with Canada’s Loop Industries to develop depolymerization technology, which dissolves PET plastic molecule blocks used in colored plastic bottles and polyester fibers and restores them to raw materials.

SK has the exclusive rights to run the business in Asia.

“SK geo centric has a unique vision for the role that plastic recycling can play in the petrochemicals business, and is leading the way building a greener and more sustainable business model for this industry in Asia,” Guillon said. “We are very pleased to join them on this important journey.”

The plastic pyrolysis market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 17 percent to reach 3.3 million tons in 2030, according to SK geo centric.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]