PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2020

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 12/20 www.petpla.net 12 Producing food contact compliant rPET using Erema Vacunite bottle-to-bottle system Closed plastic cycle can be implemented One of the first Vacunite bottle-to-bottle systems recently started operation in Werne, Germany. Using this system, the RCS Group, who already produces PET flakes for the non- food sector, is expanding their plastics recycling division to include the production of food-grade PET recyclate for food and beverage packaging, films and blisters. For the further processing of PET flakes, the waste disposal and recycling group has built a new loca- tion on a 10,000m 2 site, creating 20 additional jobs. Here, the Erema Vacunite recycling system will process up to 15,000 t/a of PET flakes from the German deposit bottle collection system and other European sources to make high-quality recyclate, vac- uum-assisted and in a nitrogen atmos- phere. Due to the strict travel restric- tions during the Corona pandemic lockdown in spring, commissioning the plant became an unexpected chal- lenge for everybody involved. The plant components had already been delivered, but since the installation team was not permitted to travel to Germany, RCS started to assemble the recycling plant themselves. An Erema team was then able to be on site for commissioning. New standard for recycled material quality RCS now operates seven days around-the-clock to produce rPET that meets all existing FDA and efsa specifications for direct food contact and the often even stricter regulations of well-known beverage brands. It also exceeds the customer’s expecta- tions. “Our analyses indicate that for all potential contaminants we achieve values that are significantly below our target values or are not detectable at all,” explains Alexander Rimmer, Man- aging Director of the RCS Group. Vacunite is based on the combina- tion of Vacurema technology - which has been proven over the past 20 years and Erema has further devel- oped for this application - together with newly patented vacuum-assisted Solid State Polycondensation (SSP) technology, which was specially devel- oped by Polymetrix for this demanding application. All thermal process steps now take place in nitrogen and/or vacuum atmosphere. Discolouration of flakes and pellets is largely elimi- nated and additives that could lead to undesired reactions in the melt are reliably removed. In addition to these quality factors, this new technology minimises energy consumption. The process requires 40% fewer compo- nents and consumes up to 36% less energy than comparable systems on the market. The energy consump- tion for the entire production process from flakes to the final pellets is only 0.35 kWh/kg. Following the commissioning of the Vacunite system with a through- put capacity of up to 1.8 t/h, RCS can now offer its customers high-quality rPET flakes and rPET pellets that are food contact compliant. The coopera- tion between RCS and a leading PET bottle and preform manufacturer illus- trates how a closed plastic cycle can be implemented, taking the PET mate- rial obtained from the German deposit system as an example. Alexander Rimmer says: “The recycling process of PET bottles returned by consumers using deposit machines begins in our group of companies as early as the collection stage. We turn the bottles into washed flakes, which are then processed using the new Vacunite system to produce food contact com- pliant recycled pellets. Our customer uses this in proportions of up to 100% to produce new preforms and bottles, which in turn end up in the retail trade and in households. This means that the cycle is completely closed and completely transparent to consum- ers, who can trace the route from the deposit machine back to the retailer.” Christoph Wöss, Business Devel- opment Manager at Erema Group GmbH, is also convinced that this route will be a successful one in the future. “Even though demand in the beverage industry has gone down due to the Corona pandemic and the situ- ation in the recycling industry is tense due to the fall in the price of new raw materials - our customers and we are convinced that plastics recycling will not lose importance as a major con- tributor to the circular economy and that the demand for high-quality recy- cled pellets will continue to increase over the medium term.” The reasons for this are the voluntary commitment of all well-known brand manufactur- ers, as well as EU directives on the recycling of PET bottles and the mini- mum proportion of recycled material to be used in new PET bottles. www.erema-group.com