Green tie-ups: Chandra Asri/ LX to develop bio-naptha for polyolefins/SSBR; Alpla/PTT Global open Thailand's largest plastics recycling plant

Indonesian petchem firm Chandra Asri says it is collaborating with South Korean trading/investment firm LX International for a potential investment in developing a Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) facility that can produce renewable feedstock in the form of bio-naptha. This raw material will be used to develop chemical and plastic products such as bio-Polyethylene (PE), bio-Polypropylene (PP), bio-Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and bio-Solution Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SSBR) as an effort to support Chandra Asri towards sustainable production of polymer raw materials. The HVO project will have a capacity of 300,000-500,000/year and is close to Chandra Asri petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Banten, so operational synergy plans can be easily realised.

In this collaboration, Chandra Asri plays a role in developing investment, providing information regarding land, and supplying hydrogen. Meanwhile, aside from the investment, LX International will participate in market investigation studies related to products and raw material supply.

The resulting products from this project, including green polymers, PVC, and SSBR used to manufacture environmentally friendly tires, will add to Chandra Asri's sustainability-linked products portfolio. In addition, the result of the study will be applied to plans and configurations for the development of CAP2, Chandra Asri's second world-scale petrochemical complex, in order to meet domestic petrochemical needs.

LX International is a trading and investment company based in South Korea, engaged in power plant development, petrochemical projects, and wholesale trading of petrochemical materials, metals, and palm oil.

This collaboration was marked through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by President Director of Chandra Asri, Erwin Ciputra and CEO of LX International, Yoon Chun-Sung, recently.

The HVO project is one of Chandra Asri's efforts to implement its commitment to sustainable business and operations. President Director of Chandra Asri, Erwin Ciputra, stated, "Chandra Asri welcomes the collaboration with LX International to unlock investment potential in HVO projects in Indonesia. This collaboration is expected to produce a source of bio-naphtha raw material that can be mixed in the olefin cracker plant into monomers, to be further processed into vegetable-based plastic raw materials. In addition, this facility will be able to produce alternative energy to replace fossil raw materials, which in line with the Greenhouse Gas Roadmap that we have developed. As a growth partner, Chandra Asri wants to play a role in efforts to maintain ecosystem balance, reduce carbon emissions, and support the acceleration of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target.”

In other news, following 18 months of construction and installation, packaging firm Alpla Group and Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical are opening the Envicco joint venture recycling plant in Thailand, with a production capacity of 45,000 tonnes/year of recycled PET (30,000 tonnes) and HDPE (15,000 tonnes), it is said to be one of the largest recycling plants for these plastics in Asia. With this plant, the two companies say will strengthen the region's circular economy and supply the growing markets with high-quality recycled material.

Located in an economic zone on the coast of the south-eastern province of Rayong, the plant is equipped with the latest recycling technology and production lines to manufacture high-quality plastic recyclates with approval from the USFDA. The 30,000-sq-m plant is on a plot of land measuring a good 90,000 sq m at the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate. There is, therefore, also space for future capacity expansions.

Alpla says it contributes more than 25 years of recycling experience to the joint venture. It will supply its production facilities in Asia with recycled material and is also fostering the circular economy at the local level. With the plant, majority shareholder GC supports sustainable development in the region, moving it towards resource-conserving business and lifestyles.

"Built in record time thanks to the excellent collaboration with GC, this highly modern plant is an important part of our recycling activities in Asia,“ said Alpla Chairman Günther Lehner during the grand opening recently. The opening was also attended, among others, by Kongkrapan Intarajang (CEO/President, GC), Dietmar Marin (Alpla Managing Director Recycling) and Bernd Wachter (Alpla Corporate Director Circular Economy & Recycling Asia).

"Today, GC is proud to reveal that ENVICCO is ready for commercial operation. Used plastics within the Kingdom of Thailand will make up 100% of the raw materials processed by Envicco’s cutting-edge production technologies to transform used plastics into valuable products,“ says Kongkrapan Intarajang. The Envicco team will comprise approximately 180 employees at the start of production.

In early 2021, the Alpla Group announced that it would invest an average of EUR50 million a year until 2025 in the ongoing expansion of its recycling activities. In particular, it plans to globalise its activities in the area of high-quality recyclates to close the materials cycle in as many regions as possible. In total, the production capacity of Alpla's recycling companies and cooperations around the world amounts to approximately 203,000 tonnes/year of rPET (recycled PET) and 74,000 tonnes/year of rHDPE (recycled HDPE).

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