Japan’s Mitsui plans petchem output from pyrolysis oil

: Petrochemicals
23/07/27

Japanese petrochemical producer Mitsui Chemicals plans to manufacture petrochemicals using pyrolysis oil, in western prefecture Osaka from the January-March 2024 quarter.

The company will use the pyrolysis oil as feedstock for its Osaka cracker to produce petrochemicals, including ethylene, propylene and benzene.

Mitsui Chemicals plans to purchase thousands of tonnes of pyrolysis oil made from plastic waste, from Japanese recycling firm CFP, but did not provide more specific details. Mitsui Chemicals will buy the recycled oil on a spot basis but could purchase more in future, it said. The firm will use the mass balance method, which uses both recycled and conventional feedstocks, to produce the petrochemicals.

The company plans to acquire certification under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification system, before beginning production.

Mitsui Chemicals has used bio-naphtha delivered by Finnish refiner Neste at its Osaka cracker to generate bio-petrochemical products since December 2021. It signed an agreement in 2022 to receive ethylene produced from chemically-recycled plastic wastes from Singapore-based refiner Shell Eastern Petroleum, to manufacture low-density polyethylene in Singapore. The company is also studying the feasibility of carbon capture, utilisation and and storage in Osaka, in the aim to use collected CO2 as feedstock for methane and methanol production.

By Nanami Oki

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