Refinery in South Korea. Approximate location 35.50091, 129.34926.
RefinerySouth KoreaCO₂ estimate (modelled)
SK Ulsan Refinery is a refinery in South Korea. Its listed capacity is 781,000 BBL per day. Refineries heat, fractionate and chemically transform crude oil into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks through energy-intensive distillation and cracking — extremely demanding on steam generation and heat recovery. It is operated by SK Inc. By capacity it ranks #1 among 9 oil refineries in South Korea. It emits about 7,295,436 t CO₂e a year from Climate TRACE, roughly comparable to the annual emissions of 1.7 million passenger cars. Its CO₂ per unit of capacity is 9% above the national median for this sector.
Facility data: Climate TRACE v6 (asset-level capacity & CO₂e, CC BY 4.0), id ct-1753673.
Source data, measured cross-checks and calculated values are kept separate. No confidence percentage is invented.
Same Climate TRACE subsector; closest non-placeholder modelled CO₂e values. Russia and Belarus excluded.
PowerAtlas operating assets, ordered by great-circle distance from published coordinates.
At 781,000 BBL per day, SK Ulsan Refinery is well above the median refinery in South Korea (256,000 BBL per day). Subsector: oil-and-gas-refining. As refinery, it requires high process heat (typically 200–600°C) for its core industrial operations — heat that must be supplied by boilers, furnaces or direct combustion, and losses through uninsulated vessels and piping represent wasted fuel. Removable modular insulation can cut those losses by 80–96%, surface-cooling equipment to ≤45°C, with payback often under 2 years. Refineries heat, fractionate and chemically transform crude oil into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks through energy-intensive distillation and cracking — extremely demanding on steam generation and heat recovery.
Capacity & CO₂-intensity comparison computed from Climate TRACE industrial facilities data; sector role based on engineering reference.
This facility's estimated annual CO₂e (Climate TRACE, modelled) in everyday equivalents from the US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculator:
Equivalencies: US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies. Emissions: Climate TRACE.
At its reported 7.3M t CO₂e/yr (Scope 1), SK Ulsan Refinery carries no domestic carbon price; refinerys are not a CBAM-covered good, so there is no border-carbon liability. At the EU ETS reference price (€75/t) the emissions carry an indicative carbon value of €550M/yr. The fastest decarbonization lever is energy efficiency: eliminating heat loss on hot equipment (removable insulation, steam & waste-heat recovery) typically cuts 2–5% of fuel-related CO₂ — here ≈146k t–365k t/yr, worth €11.0M–€27.5M, with payback up to 2 years. No domestic carbon price — but cement, steel, aluminium, fertilizer and hydrogen exported to the EU face CBAM at €75/t (rising to 100% by 2034).
Carbon price: EU CBAM €75/t · EU ETS €79/t, July 2, 2026, refreshed live via Carbon Hub. CO₂: Climate TRACE. Efficiency range: US DOE / ASTM C680 (method). Indicative carbon value, not the cash bill — free allocation applies; not compliance advice. Estimate the saving for this site →
Listed capacity (BBL per day), Climate TRACE v6 (asset-level capacity & CO₂e, CC BY 4.0).
Operated by SK Inc. All facilities by this operator →
SK Ulsan Refinery sits in a humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen Cfa), at 35.5°N in the northern hemisphere.
Köppen zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid).
The local climate sets how fast unprotected steel, protective coatings and the insulation on hot process equipment degrade at this site. It sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
In this site’s local climate, a bare 150 °C surface sheds about 1356 W/m² to ambient — roughly 1.04× the loss at a 20 °C reference; removable insulation recovers about 1288 W/m² of that. Reference-surface calculation at a 150 °C surface from WorldClim climate normals (ASTM C680 / ISO 12241) — an indicative per-climate comparison, not a measurement of this site’s specific equipment. Open method dataset: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20787408 (CC BY 4.0).
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #1 largest of 9 oil refineries in South Korea by listed capacity (Climate TRACE).
Coordinates 35.50091, 129.34926. View on OpenStreetMap.
For a refinery, the main modular-insulation targets are crude & vacuum distillation columns, fired heaters, heat exchangers, steam lines, valves & flanges. Typical hot-surface ranges used for screening: 150–550 °C.
A first-pass insulation screen suggests about 76,000 MWh/year of recoverable heat-loss reduction and about 15,000 t CO₂e/year of avoided emissions. Screening estimate scaled from installed process-heat projects and surface-temperature reduction data.
See Inzonex Modular Insulation → Run the calculator →
Screening calculation from facility class, capacity and open emissions/energy context. Engineering survey required before procurement.
Start with a thermal survey of valves, flanges, doors and bends. Removable modular insulation keeps maintenance access open while lowering exposed-surface temperature and wasted heat.
For energy-efficiency projects around process heat, likely external funding channels include:
Sources: country climate-finance facilities and public development-bank programmes.
SK Ulsan Refinery is a refinery in South Korea. Refineries heat, fractionate and chemically transform crude oil into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks through energy-intensive distillation and cracking — extremely demanding on steam generation and heat recovery.
The open dataset lists 781,000 BBL per day of capacity for SK Ulsan Refinery.
The page uses about 7,295,436 t CO₂e/year from the open dataset It ranks #5 among facilities in South Korea by estimated CO₂.
SK Ulsan Refinery is in South Korea at approximately 35.50091, 129.34926.
The operator recorded in the open dataset is SK Inc.
