Gneuss hosts PET bottles recycling forum in Germany
March 24, 2015 - Germany
Gneuss, a German company recently organised the Dr. Thiele PRF Recycling Forum and Gneuss Open House which showcased latest developments in the collection and processing of used polyester bottles.
“The PRF and Open House saw over 100 participants from 14 countries in attendance, which demonstrated that there is an ongoing interest in the specialist field of polyester recycling,” Gneuss said.
“As a lead-in to the subject, Dr. Ulrich Thiele from Dr. Thiele Polyester Technology reported on the state of the polyester recycling industry in China,” Gneuss informed in a press release.
Delegates were informed that with a collection rate in excess of 90 per cent, just under 3 million tons of used PET bottles are collected in China.
Along with another 2 million tons of imported waste bottles and 1.4 million tons of waste from polyester fibre, over 6 million tons of polyester recyclate are processed in China, mainly to make fibres and filaments.
According to David Swift from PCI, in Western Europe and the USA there are still significant potentials for improving the current collection rates of around 30 per cent in the US and around 55 per cent in Western Europe.
“This would help to continually increase the currently low 75 per cent capacity utilisation level of recycling plants,” Swift said.
Martina Lehmann of MAKCS GmbH reported on the work of RAL-Gütegemeinschaft, who have set themselves the task of creating binding RAL quality standards for PET recyclates.
The RAL standards guarantee those processing PET recyclate greater process reliability and end product quality.
For the first time at the PRF, two plant manufacturers presented their processes for chemical polyester recycling.
Meinolf Kersting from Uhde Inventa Fischer GmbH presented the flake-to-resin (FTR) process, with which pre-cleaned PET flakes are melted, degassed, partly broken down with glycol (partial glycolysis) and finely filtered.
The EverPET process presented by Dirk Karasiak of Aquafil Engineering GmbH described a different method.
With this method, the PET bottle waste is broken down with ethylene glycol to form the monomer BHET, which is then refined before being fed into the polycondensation.
What all recycling processes have in common is that the collected PET bottles are first sorted, undergo intensive cleaning and all foreign incrustations are removed.
One of the basic technologies for this is sorting and delegates were told that Se-So-Tec GmbH has specialised in sorting processes.
Michael Perl, who runs the Recycling-Sorting division at S+S, reported on innovations and standards in the sorting of bottles with the ‘Vari-Sort’ system that is done at the start of processing, and the sorting of the washed flakes at the end of the process using the S+S flake purifier.
Jan Meyer of Unisensor SensorSysteme GmbH explained the ultra-high-speed laser spectroscopy used in the Unisensor Powersort system that allows a large number of impurities to be separated both efficiently and selectively.
The entire process for making pure PET flakes was addressed by Werner Herbold of Herbold Meckesheim GmbH.
He focussed mainly on improved economy and greater energy efficiency, as documented in special work processes such as wet grinding of the starting material.
In the presentation of Andreas Christel, Product Manager responsible for PET recycling at Bühler Thermal Processes AG, the emphasis was on bottle-to-bottle (B2B) recycling.
Covering all stages from the collected PET bottles to the ready-to-use bottle granulate, Bühler offers its customers the entire PET recycling process with which systems achieve throughput rates of 100 t/d.
Processing the cleaned PET flakes to make film, fibres, filaments or packaging tapes is always done using a melting process and multi-shaft extruders with vacuum degassing have been found to be advantageous.
The innovative multi-rotation system (MRS) from Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH was shared Dirk Nissen, which now functions as a core component for a whole series of applications such as cast film, fibres, multi-filaments or granulate.
On behalf of Coperion GmbH, Sabine Schönfeld presented some important features of the double-screw extruder ZSK Mc 18, the high energy density of which forms the basis for increased throughput capacities combined with gentle material handling.
Friedel Dickmeiß presented the process for converting PET bottle waste into textile filaments that has been developed by BB Engineering GmbH, with mainly rPOY being produced.
Particularly in view of the still low collection rates in the USA and Western Europe, BBE sees good market potential for recyclate-based spinning units as collection results improve.
Automatik Plastics Machinery GmbH showcased the advantages of filter and granulating units in PET recycling, and Christian Schiavolin, presented a new SSP process on behalf of SB Plastics Machinery.
In this process known as ‘Moby’, PET granulate is heated in a vacuum by mechanical movement from IR radiation sources, and is polycondensated in the solid phase. (AR)
“The PRF and Open House saw over 100 participants from 14 countries in attendance, which demonstrated that there is an ongoing interest in the specialist field of polyester recycling,” Gneuss said.
“As a lead-in to the subject, Dr. Ulrich Thiele from Dr. Thiele Polyester Technology reported on the state of the polyester recycling industry in China,” Gneuss informed in a press release.
Delegates were informed that with a collection rate in excess of 90 per cent, just under 3 million tons of used PET bottles are collected in China.
Along with another 2 million tons of imported waste bottles and 1.4 million tons of waste from polyester fibre, over 6 million tons of polyester recyclate are processed in China, mainly to make fibres and filaments.
According to David Swift from PCI, in Western Europe and the USA there are still significant potentials for improving the current collection rates of around 30 per cent in the US and around 55 per cent in Western Europe.
“This would help to continually increase the currently low 75 per cent capacity utilisation level of recycling plants,” Swift said.
Martina Lehmann of MAKCS GmbH reported on the work of RAL-Gütegemeinschaft, who have set themselves the task of creating binding RAL quality standards for PET recyclates.
The RAL standards guarantee those processing PET recyclate greater process reliability and end product quality.
For the first time at the PRF, two plant manufacturers presented their processes for chemical polyester recycling.
Meinolf Kersting from Uhde Inventa Fischer GmbH presented the flake-to-resin (FTR) process, with which pre-cleaned PET flakes are melted, degassed, partly broken down with glycol (partial glycolysis) and finely filtered.
The EverPET process presented by Dirk Karasiak of Aquafil Engineering GmbH described a different method.
With this method, the PET bottle waste is broken down with ethylene glycol to form the monomer BHET, which is then refined before being fed into the polycondensation.
What all recycling processes have in common is that the collected PET bottles are first sorted, undergo intensive cleaning and all foreign incrustations are removed.
One of the basic technologies for this is sorting and delegates were told that Se-So-Tec GmbH has specialised in sorting processes.
Michael Perl, who runs the Recycling-Sorting division at S+S, reported on innovations and standards in the sorting of bottles with the ‘Vari-Sort’ system that is done at the start of processing, and the sorting of the washed flakes at the end of the process using the S+S flake purifier.
Jan Meyer of Unisensor SensorSysteme GmbH explained the ultra-high-speed laser spectroscopy used in the Unisensor Powersort system that allows a large number of impurities to be separated both efficiently and selectively.
The entire process for making pure PET flakes was addressed by Werner Herbold of Herbold Meckesheim GmbH.
He focussed mainly on improved economy and greater energy efficiency, as documented in special work processes such as wet grinding of the starting material.
In the presentation of Andreas Christel, Product Manager responsible for PET recycling at Bühler Thermal Processes AG, the emphasis was on bottle-to-bottle (B2B) recycling.
Covering all stages from the collected PET bottles to the ready-to-use bottle granulate, Bühler offers its customers the entire PET recycling process with which systems achieve throughput rates of 100 t/d.
Processing the cleaned PET flakes to make film, fibres, filaments or packaging tapes is always done using a melting process and multi-shaft extruders with vacuum degassing have been found to be advantageous.
The innovative multi-rotation system (MRS) from Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH was shared Dirk Nissen, which now functions as a core component for a whole series of applications such as cast film, fibres, multi-filaments or granulate.
On behalf of Coperion GmbH, Sabine Schönfeld presented some important features of the double-screw extruder ZSK Mc 18, the high energy density of which forms the basis for increased throughput capacities combined with gentle material handling.
Friedel Dickmeiß presented the process for converting PET bottle waste into textile filaments that has been developed by BB Engineering GmbH, with mainly rPOY being produced.
Particularly in view of the still low collection rates in the USA and Western Europe, BBE sees good market potential for recyclate-based spinning units as collection results improve.
Automatik Plastics Machinery GmbH showcased the advantages of filter and granulating units in PET recycling, and Christian Schiavolin, presented a new SSP process on behalf of SB Plastics Machinery.
In this process known as ‘Moby’, PET granulate is heated in a vacuum by mechanical movement from IR radiation sources, and is polycondensated in the solid phase. (AR)