PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2019

TRADE SHOW PREVIEW PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 11/19 www.petpla.net 44 Krumbach cuts energy use and CO 2 with PET bottle disposal process Empty or full Mineral water company Mineralbrunnen Krumbach, which produces mineral water and soft drinks, calculates that it fills up to 150 million bottles a year, which it distributes to bever- age wholesalers and retailers. It has recently invested in the installation of three Strautmann machines for the baling and compaction of used PET bottles, ready for shipping to recy- cling plants. In Krumbach’s previous process, full PET bottles were emptied through a perforator, then compacted in bales by a channel baler. The restricted availability of storage at the com- pany’s site meant that bales had to be collected frequently. It was labour- intensive and increasing transport and logistics costs, as well as bale han- dling and wear and tear on the perfo- rator meant that the process became uneconomic. Alexander Diehm, Operations Manager, Mineralbrunnen Krumbach GmbH When it looked for an alterna- tive collation, collection and disposal method, Krumbach sought a solu- tion that could handle around 2,200 t of PET per year, with installations integrated into the production line and able to continuously compress PET bottles on-site. “The Strautmann concept, with two redundant briquetting presses and a dewaterer, offered logistical added value. The internal process is now much easier,” reports Alexan- der Diehm, Operations Manager at Mineralbrunnen Krumbach in Kißlegg, Germany. Empty disposable PET bottles are ejected on to a conveyor belt, which carries them directly into the briquetting presses. The high pres- sure BrikPress produces tightly com- pacted briquettes, at a rate of up to 45,000 bph (500ml). The bricquettes are then channelled away by gravity feed. Once outside, the briquettes fall over a two-way distributor into a two walking-floor semitrailers. “The high briquette density has enabled us to achieve 24 t capacity utilisation, compared with about 12 t before, and to reduce our CO 2 emis- sions,” says Alexander Diehm. BrikPress and channels The briquettes are then retrieved by a disposal company and processed into preforms, which Krumbach uses to rebuild PET bottles. Its recycling rate is 97 percent and represents a closed-loop cycle. Disposal PET bottles on the way to the compaction Discharged in the two walking-floor semitrailer Full PET beverage bottles are col- lected in small wells and placed in a LiquiDrainer by forklift. A feed rocker conveys the material to a rotor, which punctures the containers and emp- ties them, at up to 10,000 bph (1 l) and with 99 per cent efficiency. The goods are pre-compacted and cancelled, to prevent potential abuse. The liquids collected run through a filter box and are discharged separately. The pre-compacted bottles are then dis- charged from the machine and carried by conveyer belt to the BrikPress and automatically compacted into bri- quettes. Mineralbrunnen Krumbach now has a fully automatic and reliable disposal system based on the Strautmann press system. Handling has been cut to a minimum and the company has greatly reduced its CO 2 emissions, also. www.strautmann-umwelt.de Strautmann Umwelttechnik Hall 8 | Booth 124