President Woo Sang-sun of Hyosung R&D Labs

Hyosung has developed a new advanced polymeric material to replace nylon for the first time in the world. 

The company announced on Nov. 4 the commercialization of the material patented under the name of Polyketone, which could be applied to a wide range of areas, including automobile and electric/electronics fields. It is the first time a Korean company has earned the proprietary rights of producing and selling a basic or original material. The Polyketone is expected to emerge as the first new highly-polymeric material to replace nylon since its debut in 1938. 

The new material has been well recognized by the international chemical industry community since the 1980s, but U.S. and Japanese chemical companies have so far failed to commercialize it. 

Hyosung Vice Chairman Lee Sang-woon said at a news conference, “Hyosung has invested a combined 60 billion won since 2004 and has successfully commercialized Polyketone that chemical companies in advanced countries failed to do.” The new material is forecast to substitute for 30 percent of the global nylon market whose value is estimated at 22 trillion won yearly, he noted.

Polyketone is a new material made with a combination of monoxide, a major culprit of air pollution, and olefin, a petrochemical substance. It is 2.3 times as strong as nylon in terms of impact strength and 30 percent more powerful in terms of chemical resistance. Producing 1 ton of Polyketone would require 0.5 ton of monoxide. Woo Sang-sun, president of Hyosung R&D Labs, said, “Production of 50,000 tons of Polyketone would have an impact of planting 3.8 million pine trees.”

President Woo Sang-sun of Hyosung R&D Labs (center) explains the commercialization of Polyketone, 

a new advanced polymeric material to replace nylon, for the first time in the world at a news conference on Nov. 4.

Hyosung has secure 160 foreign and Korean patents on the technologies related to the commercialization of the new material. 

The new material may be used as a substitute of nylon, which is in wide use for external and internal materials in automobile and electric/electronics fields and components in fuel systems. 

In 2010, the then Ministry of Knowledge Economy, mow MOTIE, put Polyketone on the top 10 World Premium Materials to occupy the global markets in advance of rival countries. 

Prof. Kim Byung-chul of Hanyang University Organic and Nano Engineering Department said, “The development of new materials, which requires lots of time and funds, has been the exclusive property of advanced countries, but Hyosung has blazed the trail for occupying the global Polyketone market in advance of others.”

A diagram of Polyketone shows its applications and finished 

products in automobiles and other areas. (Photo: Hyosung Group)

Hyosung is producing 1,000 tons of Polyketone yearly at an experimental facility in Ulsan. The company has begun studies on the commercialization of Polyketone products in cooperation with some 50 Korean companies, including Hyundai Motor, and about 100 European companies. 

Hyosung plans to complete the construction of a Polyketone production line with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons at the Ulsan plant by 2015 at a cost of 200 billion won and to expand its annual production capacity to 200,000 tons by 2020.

Hyosung Vice Chairman Lee said, “Hyosung’s Polyketone business segment aims at posting 1 trillion won in sales by 2020.”