The recycling of PET bottles has proven itself worldwide over the past 20 years and has become a model for closed plastic cycles. This development was led by the bottle-to-bottle innovations from EREMA. The Austrian recycling machine manufacturer has been able to set new standards time and again with its VACUREMA® technology, which is also the heart of the new VACUNITE® process. PET bottles with a high proportion of recycled material, which is clearly shown on the label, can therefore be found more and more frequently on store shelves. The demand for the innovative EREMA PET recycling technologies is increasing in the entire PET segment worldwide.
Photo: EREMA
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“Despite the corona-related decline in beverage sales and the tense situation in the recycling industry due to the drop in prices for new goods, interest in our PET recycling technologies remains high,” reports Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager at EREMA Group GmbH. The reasons for this are, on the one hand, the sophisticated technologies that combine high product safety, stable processes and economic efficiency, and on the other hand, the commitment of all well-known brand manufacturers as well as politics and society to plastics recycling and the circular economy. The EU has established its position in this regard, among other things, in specifications for recycling quotas and minimum recycled content in PET bottles.
The total capacity of all PET recycling machines sold so far for various applications is estimated at EREMA at 2.6 million tons per year, with the trend recently clearly pointing towards large systems from 2,000 kg / h. Outstanding in this category is a recycling system installed in Mexico this year, consisting of two VACUREMA® BASIC T machines with a throughput of 4,000 kg / h each and a solid state polycondensation (SSP). “The customer is planning an annual production of up to 60,000 tons of food-grade rPET. For us these are the largest systems that we have ever built, but our order books already have an order for an even bigger one, ”says Christoph Wöss.
EREMA is particularly satisfied with the market success of the innovative VACUNITE® technology, which redefines the benchmark for efficiency in bottle-to-bottle recycling: In just under two years, the energy-efficient system concept, a development cooperation with Polymetrix, was already on the 13th Sold to customers worldwide. The VACUNITE® process combines vacuum and nitrogen technology, ensures maximum decontamination efficiency and, with the best rPET color values, also ensures that higher rPET proportions are possible in the end product “bottle”. One of these systems was recently put into operation at the RCS Group in Germany. Alexander Rimmer, Managing Director of the RCS Group, is more than satisfied with the quality values of the rPET produced with it, because “our analyzes show that we achieve values for all potential contaminants that are well below our target values or cannot be detected at all.”
The right recycling solution for every PET application
However, the growth is not only due to the good development in the bottle-to-bottle area. The processing of PET flakes in one processing step directly into preforms (flakes-to-preform) or into films – also possible with the Multi Purpose Reactor as a retrofit solution for existing film extrusion systems (bottle-to-sheet) -, but in particular also to Regranulate for the textile industry (bottle-to-POY) also promotes demand in this segment. Between October 2019 and October 2020, EREMA was able to deliver a total of 42 systems with a total capacity of 643,000 t / a within one year. This roughly corresponds to the total capacity of all PET recycling machines sold from 2011 to 2018, shows that these are getting bigger and bigger and underlines EREMA’s position as innovation and market leader.
Extended all-round service package for bottle customers
Following the successful development of the PET recycling division on the market, the teams of experts in process engineering and for the commissioning of these special systems are also growing. As a service for customers, employees take on the requests for the evaluation of the respective recycling process by the European Food and Safety Authority (efsa) and advise and support the preparations for the approval procedures required for the production of food-grade rPET. And finally, after the production and office space, the customer center at the company’s headquarters in Ansfelden is currently being expanded. It is expected that material tests can also be carried out with the VACUNITE® process at EREMA in the first half of 2021.
Research and Development
EREMA is involved in various research projects such as “PET2PACK” or “CORNETPolyCycle” in order to develop and implement closed-loop systems that are comparable to the bottle-to-bottle cycle. The former aims to develop rigid PET recyclates that are approved for use in food packaging. “CORNETPolyCycle” deals with the development of a test strategy for the comprehensive safety assessment of plastic polymer recyclates in order to pave the way for recycled polyolefins and polystyrene in packaging with direct food contact. “We expect important insights from the intensive cooperation with our research and development partners in projects like these over the next few years in order to further advance the circular economy”, says Michael Heitzinger, Managing Director at EREMA.
www.erema-group.com
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