Lots of New Plants Trying Out New Technologies

Tag : pet baler

Plastic Environmental Technology LLC, a new investor group in AnnArbor, Mich., plans a 120-million-lb B2B PET plant in Modesto,Calif. The first of two phases (60 million lb/yr) is to open inearly 2009, using an Amut washing line and Buhler pelletizing and solid-stating systems.
At least four more packaging companies are in the process offunding or setting up new B2B PET plants in North America, but theyhaven’t yet announced them or issued purchase orders onequipment. Amcor PET in Ann Arbor, Mich., may be the closest. Itwon’t wash the flake, but only pelletize and crystallize it.
At least two other new plants will only wash, not pelletize PET.E-Z Products in Cheraw, S.C., started up a new plant in Januarywith capacity for about 36 million lb/yr of flake. Transit Plasticsin Quebec City started up a plant in April rated at 10,000 lb/hr.
All that will help close the gap left when pioneer PET recyclerWellman Inc. closed its 190-million-lb Johnsonville, S.C., plant inlate 2006. For the moment, there’s still less PET recyclingcapacity available now than there was last year, and the U.S.collects about twice as much post-consumer PET as it can wash andrecycle.
There are even two new B2B plants for HDPE milk bottles in theU.K., part of the London-based WRAP (Waste and Resource ActionProgram). Amut’s first washing line for B2B HDPE started upearly this year at Intercontinental Recycling in Lancashire, U.K.with capacity for 4400 lb/hr. Erema’s first Vacurema plantfor HDPE started up in March at Green Star Waste Exchange Servicesin Teeside, U.K. Green Star built its own wash system in-house.
NEW RPET TECHNOLOGIES
Late last year, Phoenix Technologies LLC got a Letter of NoObjection from the FDA for using PET from a new recycling processfor direct food contact. The process pulverizes PET flake to about300 microns, devolatilizes the powder under vacuum for 5 hr at 338F, then compacts the powder into porous pellets using a patentedadditive (U.S. Pat. # 7262244), which maintains high I.V.Phoenix’s original PET process devolatilized finely ground(0.25 in.) PET flake and then pelletized it.
Amut SpA in Italy has built its largest friction washer ever, forup to 8800 lb/hr of PET bottle flake. Until now, its largest unitran 6600 lb/hr. Water use is still only 0.45 liter/lb of plastic.Amut has built one unit, delivered last year to Freudenberg Politexin Colmar, France.
Amut also developed a very low-output (1100 lb/hr) modular PETrecycling plant that fits into two 40-ft containers. Operating costis 6¢ to 7¢/lb, the company says. It includes a wetgrinder, float/sink separation tank for polyolefins, frictionwasher, rinser, second float/sink tank, mechanical dryer, deduster,metal detector, and bag filler for clean flake, all fully automatedwith PLC control.
New Earth Systems, St. George, Utah, is building its firstfull-scale commercial RPET flake plant, designed to process over 70million lb/yr, starting this year in Canoga Park, Calif. In 2006New Earth developed a small, containerized PET bottle recyclingsystem for 2000 lb/hr of washed flake. It was integrated with acontainerized water-treatment plant called T-Prep.
Erema in Austria has doubled the crystallizing dryer pretreatment forPET flake in its Vacurema process. The new Vacurema Prime processuses two discontinuous pretreaters, holding batches of flake undervacuum, instead of one continuous pretreater. Erema says the longerdwell time raises the I.V. higher than with the continuous treaterin the basic Vacurema process. Flake from water bottles (0.72 I.V.)goes up 10%, while flake from soda bottles (0.80 I.V.) gains only6%.