The recycling facility, dubbed Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster (ARC), will have an annual capacity of 66,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastic waste input
SK Geo inks MOU with Plastic Energy to complete plan for plastic recycling complex. (Credit: SK innovation Co., Ltd)
SK Innovation’s subsidiary SK Geo Centric has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with British company Plastic Energy to complete the plan for the world’s first plastic recycling complex to be constructed in 2025.
According to SK Geo Centric, the Ulsan plastic recycling facility’s official name is the Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster (ARC).
At Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023, South Korea-based SK Geo Centric signed a license contract with Plastic Energy to introduce the technology to construct a pyrolysis plant in the Ulsan plastic recycling complex.
SK Geo Centric will begin building its pyrolysis facility this year. Using Plastic Energy’s advanced pyrolysis technology in Ulsan, South Korea, SK Geo will promote an annual capacity of 66,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastic waste input, the largest capacity in Asia.
The chemical firm has plans to enhance pyrolysis oil to an even higher quality by creating a pyrolysis oil post-treatment plant that implements the company’s own technologies.
Additionally, two firms sign an MOU for a strategic partnership to expand the advanced recycling business in chosen regions across Asia.
Both companies intend to create a joint venture to explore chances to build more sophisticated recycling plants after Ulsan in the Seoul metropolitan area, China, Japan, and other important markets as a response to the expanding global demand.
By recycling polymers that are typically incapable of being mechanically recycled, Plastic Energy’s TAC process creates TACOIL, a feedstock that is utilised to produce virgin-quality plastics.
SK Geo Centric CEO Na Kyung-soo said: “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.
“We will do our best to continue strategic partnerships with global companies with core capacities and create Ulsan ARC smoothly.”
SK Geo Centric is collaborating with PureCycle Technologies in the US on Ultra PP supercritical extraction technology to eliminate contaminants from waste plastics.
Additionally, it has acquired the exclusive right to sell in Korea and business licences in China and Southeast Asia.