PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2016

TRADE SHOW REVIEW 32 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 12/16 www.petpla.net Amut introduces the Turbo washer Purification of inorganic and fine pollutants by Gabriele Kosmehl Anthony Georges, President of Amut North America, in front of the Turbo washer model TW500 at Amut’s booth at K 2016 Shortly before the K, the American Association of Plastics Recyclers, Napcor, published the latest PET-recycling fig- ures. The report cites a 2015 United States recycling rate of 30.1% for PET bottles, a further slight decrease from the 31% reported the year before and joining a trend of a slight year-on-year decrease in the U.S. PET bottle collection volumes. In contrast, the volume of PET bottles in the mar- ketplace and potentially available for recycling increased. These figures must certainly suggest that suitable collection systems have not been established everywhere and that the PET bottles are often put in with household waste, which makes recycling more difficult. The recycling division of the Italian machine manufacturer Amut reacted to the worsening soiled state of bot- tles to be recycled by developing the Turbo washer, which permits a par- ticularly intensive cleaning process. “When PET bottles in the USA are sent to recycling, there is a very high degree of soiling” explains Anthony Georges, President of Amut North America. “Because in many cases the bottles have to be sorted from the household waste, the PET items con- tain splinters of glass and all sorts of inorganic impurities. The level of dirt is so high that in the end, out of the 12-15t of post-consumer bales sent for recycling, only 6t high-quality PET fibres can be reclaimed.“ The Turbo washer in the recycling chain The Turbo washer is integrated in the recycling chain between the wet grinding and the friction washing. The first step in the recycling chain is the de-labeller, which in the cleaning process can almost com- pletely remove PVC or PETG full body sleeve labels in the dry clean- ing process. Depending on the type, 1,000g bottles/hour (NIR process) or up to 6,000kg bottles/hour can be processed. This is followed by whole bottle washing, before they are crushed in the wet grinding process. Then the newly-developed Turbo washer steps in: it performs an important washing action in purifying the plastic flakes from inorganic and fine pollutants using centrifugal force. During the centrifugal process dirty water, sand, paper fibres and soil flow through the basket holes, whereas the flakes are retained. “The smallest bits of dirt can also be removed using the Turbo washer,” Georges reports and goes on: “The requirement was the elimination of the very fine pollutants by a filtration device, which in places is smaller than the size of a human hair. We can now filter out pollutants >10μm without any problems”. The machine is used both for washing the flakes coming from the wet grinder and for intensive rinsing of the flakes after a strong washing process with detergents. After this comes more treatment in the friction washer, before the flakes, after a final rinse, run through the complete cleaning process. The entire cleaning procedure is possible in the closed-loop water system, which requires no fresh water input except for the final rinse. And how has the Turbo washer been accepted in the American market? “We have now sold our first plant with a performance of 4,000mt/h to a customer in North America,” reports Georges. “It will be installed in the spring of next year”. www.amut.it