Start of basic design for commercialization of used plastic recycling business - Start of consideration of business alliance for raw material procurement, construction of chemical recycling system -

Image diagram of the chemical recycling system in this project

In recent years, efforts to address issues such as marine plastic litter, climate change, and strengthening waste import regulations in various countries have been promoted. In addition, the Act on Promotion of Resources Circulation Related to Plastics has come into force, and there is a growing societal need and importance of further promoting plastic Resources circulation.
Meanwhile, in Japan, only about 20% of the approximately 8.2 million tons of used plastics produced annually are recycled, and more than 50% of used plastics are difficult to recycle, so they are thermally recycled into fuel. Under these circumstances, there is a demand for unprecedented, innovative chemical recycling technologies to meet the expanding need for recycled plastics.

This project will utilize Environmental Energy's plastic oil production facility (HiCOP technology ^*1), which will be newly constructed within our Chiba Complex area, to refine, decompose and resynthesize oil produced from used plastics at the plant's oil refining and petrochemical facilities to produce "renewable chemicals."

Our company and Kankyo Energy Company have been working together to develop oil-based chemical recycling technology for used plastics since fiscal 2019, and have been conducting demonstration studies since 2021. Now that we have a prospect for the technological development necessary for the construction of commercial facilities, we will now undertake basic design with a view to commencing commercial operations in 2025.

We are also conducting a joint survey with Ichikawa Environmental Holdings and Maeda Sangyo, major recyclers in the Tokyo and Chubu regions, regarding the procurement of used plastics as raw materials, and have agreed to begin discussions toward establishing a concrete procurement system.
Through this business venture, we aim to establish a plastic Resources circulation production system (chemical recycling system) that makes effective use of our existing facilities, and we also consider expanding the business to our group's Refinery across the country.

In this project, we will effectively utilize the facilities of Refineries/Complexes as plastic Resources recycling bases, thereby converting our existing manufacturing facilities into new low-carbon, Resources recycling energy hubs known as "CNX ^*2 Centers," and aiming for Energy/material transition to a carbon neutral/circular society.

■Business Overview

place

Idemitsu Chiba Complex

processing power

20,000 tons/year (used plastic weight)

Production start date

FY2025 (planned)

■Role of each company

Idemitsu Kosan Environmental Energy Company

Establishment of technology and basic design of oil converting equipment

Idemitsu Kosan

Collection and re-refining of produced oil

Ichikawa Kankyo Holdings, Maeda Sangyo

Sourcing used plastics

*1 HiCOP technology: This refers to a catalytic cracking method, a patented technology invented by Manager Fujimoto of the HiBD Research Institute (Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo and the University of Kitakyushu).

*2 CNX: Carbon Neutral Transformation

(reference)
Chiba Complex begins Japan's first demonstration study of recycling waste plastics, including mixed plastics
https://www.idemitsu.com/jp/news/2021/210507_2.html