S-OIL to start waste plastic pyrolysis oil demonstration project

South Korean oil refiner S-OIL Corporation announced on July 6 that it had applied for and received approval for a regulatory sandbox from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology for a special demonstration project to produce low-carbon eco-friendly products by injecting waste plastic pyrolysis oil into the petroleum refining process. S-OIL said it plans to start a full-scale production demonstration project.

Currently, South Korea’s domestic petroleum business law stipulates that only petroleum and petroleum products can be used as raw materials for refining, so that waste plastic pyrolysis oil cannot be used as a raw material in the oil refining process. Thus, the need to apply for a regulatory exception sandbox.

S-OIL will process pyrolysis oil manufactured from waste plastics at home and abroad along with crude oil in the existing refinery chemical process at Onsan, South Korea, to produce refined chemical products such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel, naphtha, and polypropylene. 

“During the demonstration period of the next two years, we plan to produce resource-recycling products by injecting up to 10,000 tons of pyrolysis oil into the existing oil refining chemical process,” a company official said.

S-OIL plans to expand the production of eco-friendly products by adjusting the mixing ratio of waste plastic pyrolysis oil and crude oil while evaluating changes in overall product yield and process impact. It is expected to contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide and waste, as well as an excellent resource circulation and replacement for crude oil, as it recycles waste plastics, which are mainly incinerated and sent to the landfill.

More than 85% of waste plastic can be recycled, the company said. For every ton of waste plastic recycled, about 1.2 tons of carbon dioxide can be reduced compared to incineration.