47 TRADE SHOW REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 01+02/23 www.petpla.net PET recycling system Next Generation Recycling Machines (NGR) company from Feldkirchen in Austria demonstrated its popular “P-React” recycling solution. This PET recycling waste system, which has been operational since 2011 and relies on NGR’s liquid rather than solid state polycondensation, is used by over 50 converters worldwide for various applications such as fibre sheet or bottle-to-bottle applications and has recently been technically upgraded, particularly in terms of energy consumption and footprint. In an original way and with the wink of an eye, the company invited visitors to a press conference held on October 19 to suggest how far P-React’s potential could reach. The management team around CEO Gerhard Ohler, COO and Managing Director Erich Fürst and CTO Günther Klammer showed in a short film presentation how even a distant planet called PETtras-h completely littered with plastic becomes clean again thanks to the company’s own LSP technology. The partly animated film also offered real insights into construction areas and the company’s development, as well as discussing LSP recycling, the various process stages and system technology. “A major advantage of using LSP over conventional SSP in the processing of PET waste is the amount of time saved and resultant savings in costs. SSP processes usually take several hours, while LSP can perform decontamination in minutes”, said Tobias Huber, Head of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations. “By processing the material at the liquid stage, we also ensure that the plastic is upgraded and decontaminated to the highest standards demanded by the brand owners which are proven to exceed regulatory requirements in terms of food safety”. The process removes practically all impurities and hazardous substances contained in PET such as benzenes and bisphenol A. According to the company, the chemically-induced degradation of a material’s properties during PET processing is completely counterbalanced, providing PET converters with pristine quality recyclate. A number of tests conducted by the brand owner confirmed that material properties following completion of the LSP process are even better than those of the input material as required. www.ngr-world.com F.l.t.r.: CEO Gerhard Ohler, CTO Günther Klammer and Head of Marketing Tobias Huber at the press conference Clever use of the melting phase During the K’ show, Gneuss used the opportunity to demonstrate their Omniboost recycling system in their Technical Centre in Westphalia, Germany. On two days, more than 150 guests from all over the world witnessed demonstrations of the new Gneuss Omniboost Recycling System for processing PET industrial fibre waste (POY). This fibre waste had a residual moisture level of 6 % and an intrinsic viscosity of 0.64dl/g. The material was fed into the Omniboost system with at throughput rate of 150kg/h and thanks to the Gneuss liquid melt phase IV booster, the viscosity was increased. The visitors were impressed by the speed of the IV boost: with a residence time within minutes, the IV was increased to 0.66dl/g. For an IV boost to 0.84dl/g a residence time less than half an hour was required. The Omniboost recycling system is designed for recycling both postindustrial and post-consumer PET waste with a low bulk density, such as waste fibres, or thin film. Without the need for any thermal pre-treatment, the material is fed into the Gneuss 3C rotary feeder, which cuts and compacts the material as well as feeding it directly into the MRS extruder screw. The Gneuss MRS extruder is based on the simple and rugged single screw extruder, however it is equipped with a multiple screw section for optimised degassing. The patented multiple screw design from Gneuss has a section of extruder screw (Multi Rotation Section MRS) with a number of satellite screws, which rotate in the opposite direction to the main screw, creating a huge surface area and ensuring an extremely rapid surface area exchange rate. This ensures unparalleled degassing performance in the melt phase, with minimal stress on the material and can decontaminate post-consumer PET to food contact requirements without the need for thermal pre-treatment of the material prior to extrusion. After passing through the extruder, the polymer melt is filtered with the highly efficient Gneuss RSFgenius melt filtration system. This system ensures that even with high contamination loads, fine filtration is possible without pressure or flow disturbances and with minimised polymer loss, said Gneuss. Still in the melt phase, the polymer flows into the Gneuss Jump liquid phase IV booster reactor. The viscosity of the melt is measured both on the inlet and outlet of the reactor. The viscosity is boosted to the required level by regulating the vacuum level, residence time and surface area exchange rate in the reactor vessel. With an assured, constant output viscosity the material can be fed to the production process (for example: fibre spinning, strapping tape) whilst still in the melt phase. By ensuring that the polymer remains in the melt phase from the extruder to the final processing stage, the Omniboost recycling process represents a fast and efficient way to reprocess PET where a viscosity boost is required. www.gneuss.com Omniboost recycling system in operation at Gneuss technical centre in Bad Oeynhausen
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