MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Global Chemical and global waste solutions provider Brightmark have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a partnership that aims to build a commercial-scale plastics renewal facility in South Korea, according to Apic-online.
Under the MoU, the parties will jointly utilize Brightmark's plastics renewal technology and confirm its commercial viability with the intention of forming a joint venture to develop, finance, construct and operate the plant.
The proposed facility is planned to have a capacity of 100,000 t/y. Both companies will perform a feasibility study during 2021 and intend to cooperate by combining experience of pyrolysis and post treatment. A planned schedule for the project was not available.
By the end of this year, they will complete an evalua-tion of the most optimal methods to operate, scale and develop Brightmark?s technology prior to finalization of a joint venture agreement for the plant development and operation.
Brightmark is currently building a USD260-million plastics renewal facility in Ashley, Ind., which will initially convert about 100,000 t/y of plastic waste into new products. It is scheduled to achieve full com-mercial scale this year.
As MRC reported previously, SK Innovation Co Ltd, the owner of South Korea's top refiner SK Energy, said in early February, 2021, that refining margins are expected to gradually recover this year on a pick-up in fuel demand as the impact of COVID-19 eases. The company, which has been battered by weak margins during the global pandemic, posted an operating loss of 243 billion won (USD218 million) in the October-December quarter.
We remind that SK Advanced is planning to start up the new polypropylene (PP) plant in Ulsan, South Korea this March 2021 as construction works are nearly completed. The PP unit is a joint venture between PolyMirae and SK Advanced, using the “Spheripol” process of LyondellBasell, and have an annual output of 400,000 tons/year. The unit will be utilizing the propylene output from SK’s 600,000 tons/year propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit at the same complex. It is expected that SK Advanced would have a smaller propylene allocation for export once the new PP line comes online.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
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