LG Chem is expected to build a new plastic recycling plant with an estimated capacity of more than 20,000 tons

LG Chem, South Korea's leading chemical company, said on Wednesday it would spend 310 billion won (about 1.65 billion yuan) to build a new plastic recycling plant and aerogel production unit.

LG Chem says the plastic cracker plant is expected to break ground. It is understood that the plant will use HydroPRT, the technology of British recycling company Mura. In January, LG Chem purchased a process license from KBR, Mura's exclusive global licensing partner. In addition, LG Chem holds an equity stake in the recycling company.

The plant is expected to have a capacity of 20,000 tons. Supercritical thermal cracking is a technology that decomposes waste plastics with steam at high temperatures and pressures beyond the critical point, and converts them into fossils to replace oils and chemicals, which can be reprocessed into new plastics.

According to LG Chem, the plastic cracking market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 17% to 3.3 million tons by 2030.

In addition, LG Chem will build a separate facility in the same complex for the production of aerogels. Aerogels are a lightweight solid material known as next-generation materials used as thermal insulators for electric vehicle batteries, for the transport and storage of liquid hydrogen, and for special clothing such as spacesuits.

Both facilities will be operational in 2024.

Once LG's facility in South Korea, which will be the first in Asia to use HydroPRT technology, LG Chem plans to examine the potential to build more sites.

South Korea has one of the largest per capita consumption of plastic in the world. Post-use plastic from the commercial and industrial sectors has greatly increased the level of waste in South Korea, while recycling capacity at scale remains low, especially in high-traffic urban areas, although the country aims to reduce its plastic waste by 20% by 2025. Kug-lae Noh, president of LG Chem's petrochemical company, believes that the construction of the HydroPRT facility is "an extremely important step in addressing plastic waste pollution and reducing carbon emissions that threaten our environment."

LG Chem is committed to the research and development of plastic recycling and reuse to create new types of plastics. In addition, recycling plastic waste is the most effective way to achieve the company's 2050 carbon neutrality goal. LG Chem announced its corporate carbon neutrality target in July 2020 and committed to reducing carbon emissions to the same level of 10 million tons by 2050 as in 2019.