SK Chemicals’ biodiesel plant starts production

South Korea’s SK Chemicals Co. said that it has started commercial production at its biodiesel plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan. The plant has an annual production capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year (mtpy), and was built with an investment of almost 30 billion won (US$20.9 million). It is the first South Korean plant to use the petrochemical dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) to produce biodiesel. Meanwhile, SK Chemicals’ parent SK Energy Co. Ltd. said it is running its 275,000-capacity crude refinery in Inchon, west of Seoul, at half its capacity as middle distillates cracks, or the margins derived from processing crude oil into gas oil or jet fuel, have collapsed. In related news, SK Energy appointed Koo Ja-young, president of the planning and technology division, as the firm’s new chief executive officer, replacing Shin Heon-cheol, who resigned after a board meeting in February. (March 3/4/5/13, 2009)