In the 6^th episode of “SK Innovation’s endeavor to achieve Decarbonization” series, let’s explore another Green Transformation case of SK Geo Centric, which has introduced renewable naphtha to produce more eco-friendly products. Choi Ahn-seop, Head of Optimization & DT Office, SK Geo Centric, will walk us through to learn what it is and why it is important for the company.

▲ Choi Ahn-seop, Head of Optimization & DT Office, SK Geo Centric

ㅣ Please introduce the renewable naphtha that SK Geo Centric is going to use to produce “green products”?

Naphtha is an important raw material in petrochemical production. It is obtained during the distillation of crude oil as feedstock, and in the process, it generates considerable amounts of GHGs. That means in order to make eco-friendly products, it is significant for us to replace the existing naphtha with renewable one.

To put it simply, renewable naphtha can be best understood as an eco-friendly feedstock. These are naphtha made up of soybean oil, palm oil, and waste cooking oil, and others. SK Geo Centric intends to utilize renewable naphtha to make eco-friendly products that have the same specifications as the existing products.

ㅣ Could you elaborate the background behind applying renewable naphtha?

Everything around us is transforming. Europe and the U.S. plan to expand the ratio of recycled materials on a mandatory basis, and impose plastic taxes and Carbon Border-Adjustment Taxes by 2030. Moreover, customer awareness towards eco-friendly purchases is rapidly changing as well.

Green transformation is one of the prerequisites for us to revamp ourselves as a leading ESG company. SK Geo Centric is pushing diversified efforts to preemptively lead the green product market and decided to proactively adopt renewable naphtha, which is three times more expensive than the existing one.

ㅣ We’ve heard that SK Geo Centric has obtained ISCC PLUS Certificate, what is it?

▲ ISCC PLUS Certificate that SK Geo Centric acquired.

ISCC PLUS ((International Sustainability & Carbon Certification) is an international certification system that satisfies the European Union’s renewable energy directives, which are considered to be the most stringent standards in the world. The certificates are issued after thorough monitoring from eco-friendly raw materials, production process to final commodities.

The fact that SK Geo Centric has gained the ISCC PLUS certificate means that our green products have officially gained worldwide recognition as sustainable eco-friendly products.

ㅣ Finally, what do you expect from the introduction of renewable naphtha?

▲ SK Geo Centric members take a commemorative photo holding the ISCC PLUS certificate (enlarged copy)

We expect that it would help us to step closer to the goals of SK Geo Centric, which has transformed itself for the purpose of making eco-friendly innovations for the earth. As we can produce eco-friendly products by recycling waste cooking oil, waste plastic bags, and waste plastics, it would extensively contribute to the mitigation of carbon emissions and environmental protection.

As such, it can be viewed that the ISCC PLUS certificate underpins SK Geo Centric’s establishment of a platform for generating eco-friendly products based on eco-friendly feedstocks such as renewable naphtha and pyrolysis oil straight away. The company will practice ESG management with the introduction of eco-friendly feedstock and the increased production of eco-friendly products and enhance its value one step higher as a green company.

Click the video below to learn more about SK Geo Centric’s renewable naphtha: