Site

Kumho Petrochemical Yeosu

Kumho Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

Predominantly Chemicals Operations

Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of)

/ Yeosu, Jeonnam

Jeonnam

1292, Hwachi-dong

http://www.kkpc.com

Kumho Mitsui Chemicals’ Yeosu Plant. Credit: Mitsui Chemicals, Apr 2021

The KKPC Yeosu facility, located within the Yeosu National Industrial Complex, is a fully integrated Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI) manufacturing site that:

Produces high-performance monomeric (4,4′-MDI) and modified MDI grades used in automotive NVH parts, elastic fibers, synthetic leather and CASE applications, as well as polymeric MDI for rigid and semi-rigid polyurethane foams.
Houses R&D laboratories and process development units for catalyst, crystallization and environmental technologies aimed at improving NCO-group selectivity and by-product recycling.
Expanded its annual MDI capacity from 410,000 t/y to 610,000 t/y in September 2024, making it one of the world’s largest single-site MDI producers, and incorporates closed-loop recycling to convert MDI by-product brine into raw materials, thereby reducing wastewater and greenhouse-gas emissions.
In June 2025, it began operating an on-site chlor-alkali plant (60,000 t/y capacity) utilizing thyssenkrupp nucera’s e-BiTAC v7 electrolyzers to generate chlorine and caustic soda from recycled MDI brine, replacing imported chlorine feedstock and minimizing effluent discharge.

MDI Manufacturing time line

Year	Capacity (t/y)	Expansion Method / Technology
1992	25,000	Start of commercial MDI production phosgenation-based MDA conversion)
1996	30,000 (+5,000)	Debottlenecking of reactor and crystallizer units
2001	50,000 (+20,000)	Addition of new phosgenation train and expanded distillation column
2004	55,000 (+5,000)	Further debottlenecking in isocyanate ynthesis and recovery systems
2005	65,000 (+10,000)	Installation of improved solvent recovery nd MDI purification equipment
2009	140,000 (+75,000)	Construction of a second MDI production line using proprietary KMCI phosgenation technology
2010	150,000 (+10,000)	Fine debottlenecking in reactor heat integration nd by-product handling
2012	200,000 (+50,000)	Third production train added; enhanced crystallization section
2014	240,000 (+40,000)	Installation of carbodiimide-modified MDI eactor for specialty grades
2017	350,000 (+110,000)	Fourth train: large-scale phosgenation eactor and high-efficiency distillation
2019	410,000 (+60,000)	Capacity boost via advanced process ontrol and debottlenecking
2024	610,000 (+200,000)	Fifth train: state-of-the-art phosgenation modules