Interviewed the CEO of ECO CREATION, Jeon Beom geun at the forefront of the circular economy
Have technologies of both facilities and refined for waste plastic.
Utilize self-developed catalysts to "De-chlorination function" is key
"Waste Plastic to Oil"... Leads ESG
Large-scale facility to process 10 tons at a time
Low maintenance costs...reuse the gas they produce while processing
Supplying the refined pyrolysis oil to major domestic refineries and looking to enter the global market. Laying the foundation through the listing"
Jeon Beom geun, CEO of ECO CREATION.
Photo = Market economy DB
"Trash becomes money"
Recently, not only the government but also companies are paying attention to the 'Circular Economy (CE). A circular economy refers to a production and consumption model that uses a product as long as possible and then recycles it. This model is characterized by having a circular shape rather than a linear shape. It is a 'enclosed loop system' that recovers and regenerates various resources when they become products and waste after use.
One of the numerous circular economy models is 'waste plastic recycling'. A major petrochemical company focused on a recycling method called "pyrolysis" in a project that was being carried out. And in this regard, "ECO CREATION" is considered as a company with unique technology.
ECO CREATION, the resource circulation company based in Seo-gu, Incheon, is a company with unique low-temperature pyrolysis technology. This technology turns waste plastic into 'oil' that can be used directly in machines.
According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the annual amount of waste plastic generated worldwide is 400 million tons (t), and if this increase accordingly, it is expected to reach 1.1 billion tons by 2025. One of the methods of treating waste plastics is 'incineration'. However, it emits a large amount of greenhouse gases as well as harmful chemicals such as dioxin, furan, lead, and mercury that are fatal to the human body when incinerated.
ECO CREATION's low-temperature pyrolysis technology has something in common to apply 'heat', but it is completely different from incineration. It is not a method of heating and burning directly, but a method of putting waste plastic in a closed space of a self-developed "pyrolysis plant" and melting it by heating it. Through this, the molecular structure in waste plastic changes, and produce pyrolysis oil that can be used as fuel.
Unrivaled technology, "Catalyst"... Highlighted in Blue Ocean Pyrolytic Oil Market
The plastic pyrolysis market is undergoing an early stage of commercialization. This is because technology research was conducted early, but the success of technology development was slow and verification was delayed.
Some says that attention should be paid to the 'high growth' of the pyrolysis market. According to a report released early last year by Hana Financial Research Institute, the waste plastic chemical recycling market, including pyrolysis oil, is expected to grow at an annual rate of 16-17% by 2030, and petrochemical refineries are accelerating their entry into the plastic pyrolysis market in Korea.
The report said that the ability to respond to safety verification and pollutant treatment will become important in the pyrolysis market in the future, and that it is essential to secure response capabilities to meet market changes in order to have differentiated competitiveness in the pyrolysis market emerging as a blue ocean.
ECO CREATION's businesses are largely divided into two categories: ▲ manufacturing and selling waste plastic pyrolysis plants ▲ sales of pyrolysis oil through pyrolysis facilities.
The core technologies are catalysts and catalyst tower. Catalysts play a role in enhancing the quality of pyrolysis oil enough to be used in real life.
Jeon Beom geun, CEO of ECO CREATION, said, "The catalyst and catalyst tower technology developed on our own play a role in eliminating the pipe clogging phenomenon, which is the main cause of accidents when operating pyrolysis plants. In addition, the key is the desalination function that reduces impurities and chlorine, which are considered the most important in oil refining and petrochemical history, which are large consumers of pyrolysis oil."
The company's catalytic technology is expected to be competitive soon. ECO CREATION was selected as a national research project implementation company by the Ministry of Environment in 2019 and completed the development of catalyst technology that can remove impurities such as wax and chlorine in pyrolysis oil, and obtained new technology certification from the Ministry of Environment for the first time in Korea.
In addition, it has obtained ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) PLUS certification for overseas market, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical) certification, which is a regulation of registration, evaluation, permission and restriction of chemicals in the European Union, and has also passed quality tests of global refineries with relatively strict environmental regulations.
CEO Jeon said, "In the past, low-temperature pyrolysis has attracted attention and many startups have appeared, but it has not been maintained due to the limitations of technology development," adding to that, "The fact that the technology has continued to be successful even after that period is the basis for its solidity."
"ECO CREATION's catalytic technology has a high impurity purification rate. Therefore, it allows the machine to operate stably without clogging the pipe and helps to produce high-quality pyrolysis oil and most of the other pyrolysis plants in Korea do not have catalyst technology."
Playing the role of "Urban Oil Field"... all of major refineries eyes on pyrolysis oil.
ECO CREATION sells pyrolysis oil produced through its subsidiaries New EcoOne and E&C Yeoncheon and plays the role of "urban oil fields." Both subsidiary companies supply pyrolysis oil to major domestic refineries, and recently signed export contracts with overseas refineries.
In Korea, pyrolysis oil could not be used as a substitute for crude oil under the Waste Management Act and the Petroleum Business Act. Since then, along with the seriousness of waste plastics, the Ministry of Environment has revised the Enforcement Rules of the Waste Management Act in 2022 to establish a "waste plastic pyrolysis" item for waste recycling types. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy then added "waste plastic pyrolysis oil" to the raw materials allowed for petrochemical processes through the revision of the Petroleum Business Act in August last year.
"Domestic and foreign refineries are particularly more focused on the 'environment' in ESG management," said CEO Jeon Beom geun. "We are also active in the use of pyrolysis oil."
"However, when supplying pyrolysis oil, the oil companies must meet the criteria, such as flashpoint, SOx (sulfur oxide), NOx (nitrogen oxide), and chlorine content," he said. "Among them, chlorine is the most sensitive factor for refineries."
"If the chlorine is high, the machine may break down during the refining process after mixing pyrolysis oil," he said. "For this reason, refineries are bound to be sensitive to the item, and the chlorination of pyrolysis oil that Eco Creation produce is below 200 ppm." This is significantly lower than other companies, which are usually around 500 ppm, he said.
"We are also focusing our efforts on research and development because refineries are demanding better quality oil and standards within environmental laws are expected to be strengthened," he added.
High efficiency technology... "A target to respond on continuously increasing demand"
ECO CREATION's pyrolysis plant is a huge facility that takes about a year and a half from production to commissioning, completing installation inspections, and commercializing. 10 tons of waste plastic can be treated per batch, operating time per batch is 14 hours, and the yield averages around 50% of waste plastic throughput.
However, the cost of maintenance is not significant. This is because Eco Creation plant can use gas as fuel that produced during the production process.
CEO Jeon Beom geun emphasized, "We use LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) at the beginning of the (pyrolysis plant) operation, but after a certain period of time, we can reuse the gas from the production process and use it as fuel," adding, "There is little cost for maintenance compared to the scale."
"We may need some electricity because of various sensors, some motors, but that's not the main fuel for plant driving," he added.
ECO CREATION's pyrolysis plant is also a hot topic in major overseas countries. The company recently completed plant export contracts with companies in Japan, U.K., and the U.S.
As a result, the company's plant-related sales remained at 2.6 billion won in 2022 and 3 billion won in 2023, but jumped to 18 billion won (tentative amount) in 2024 due to large orders last year.
"When we look at domestic and foreign waste plastics-related cases, we found that overseas plastics are not classified or pollutants are discarded without washing, so separate collection is not done well compared to Korea," CEO Jeon said. "Since our plants have refining technology regardless of plastic types or pollutants, we can avoid the problem even waste not properly separated."
"Considering this, the demand for pyrolysis plants in the global market is expected to continue," he said.
He noted that as it is a large-scale facility, it is necessary to consider that the time and manpower for after-sales service (AS), and that most companies prefer local AS and want to receive immediate service.
"In the future, plant exports will increase demand for local AS and convenience of sales," CEO Jeon said, adding, "The big goal is to expand sales and sales channels through overseas subsidiaries and to provide maintenance services."
The company chose IPO as a tool to achieving its goals. The public offering funds will be used to operate large-scale sites directly that will provide simulations directly to customers. In addition, it will accelerate its entry into overseas markets where expected demand is certain, including the details of signing contracts.
The goal is to apply for a preliminary review with the Korea Exchange within the first half of this year and then be listed within this year. Eco Creation passed a technical evaluation for listing on the KOSDAQ technology special last month.
CEO Jeon said, "We will request a preliminary review for listing within the first half of the year, and seek to secure additional technical manpower and expand overseas sales networks through listing within the year." "As the waste plastic pyrolysis market is in its infancy, we will invest more funds in research and development and sales to become a market leader at this time."
"Support more to resources circulation companies"
Asked if he had anything to say lastly, CEO Jeon Beom geun said, "I would like to ask you to be cautious and open on resource circulation technology and companies."
He said, "The hardest thing in leading the eco-creation so far was the licensing. There were complaints at the root," he said. "Even though we conducted a lot of inspections on (Eco Creation's) pyrolysis plant and were evaluated as not generating odors or pollutants, but there were many negative views because the feedstock was 'trash.' "
"I thought it was difficult problems because we understand the minds of residents living in the area while doing the resource circulation project, and that part was very difficult in the process of growth," he said. "Now, we have somewhat eased the difficulties by using less affected areas."
"As the importance of the environment grows, we hope that people consider many aspects and look at it with an open mind so that resource circulation companies can grow further," he said.