EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 11/24 www.petpla.net 15 As an innovative market player, Alpek Polyester presented closures made of PET in NPE 24. As long as it remains transparent, it can be reprocessed with the bottle in both chemical recycling and mechanical recycling which ensures recycling at its best to avoid complications in the initial separation process. With increased focus on sustainability, the plant is heavily invested in recycling capabilities including production of resin & sheets with rPET content using the chemical recycling process. Used PET bottles in the form of high-quality flakes are sourced to be made into bottle-grade again. Andrea Frigerio, Site Quality & Continuous Improvement Manager, stated: “We make sure that the quality of the flakes is as consistent as possible. Everything goes into the reactor described below, where unwanted substances like other polymers (PP/ HDPE) are removed. Another positive aspect of chemical recycling is that the material is only heated once in the reactor. As a result, it is not prone to grey or yellow haze. APME’s PET resin and single pellet technology meets FDA & EFSA standards.” www.alpekpolyester.com In the control room, Salim Ba Awain shows Alexander Büchler the process flow in the production of bottle-grade PET. Alpek Polyester, a leading global producer of PTA and PET, closed the acquisition of OCTAL Holding for US$620m on June 1, 2022, as the agreement signed was subject to regulatory approvals. OCTAL, a major producer of PET film and bottle grade PET resin with a capacity of over 1 million t/a, operates plants in Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the USA. The acquisition expands Alpek Polyester’s portfolio to include the direct-tosheet PET film segment (DPET). Alpek has an installed capacity of 5.8 million t/a and operates 32 plants in Mexico, the USA, the UK, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The melt-to-resin (MTR) process is a fully integrated one-step process that provides bottle-grade IV PET melt directly from the discage reactor (finisher). PET is produced from the raw materials purified terephthalic acid (PTA), isophthalic acid (PIA) and ethylene glycol (EG) using a melt polymerisation process. Conventional processes have in common that they require a second, subsequent solid condensation step (SSP) to further increase the molecular weight of the polymer. Alpek Polyester uses the MTR process, in which the IV increase takes place before the granulate is produced. This makes the material more uniform; thicker or thinner granules or dust have the same material properties. As the granulate is not subsequently heated again in the SSP, the acetaldehyde content is significantly lower, which is a decisive advantage for water bottle grades. In addition, the MTR process has a clear advantage in producing bottle-grade PET in terms of overall costs, energy consumption, plant flexibility, fixed costs, raw material utilisation and maintenance costs. www.agrintl.com +1.724.482.2163 • Accurate. Fast. Intuitive. • Powerful, Simple Job Creation and Editing • 3UH 'HȴQHG &RQWDLQHU 0HDVXUHPHQW 5RXWLQHV • AutoJob® ȃ $XWRPDWHG )HDWXUH 5HFRJQLWLRQ and Job Setup in Seconds 3DUWQHU ZLWK $JU WR DFKLHYH VLPSOLȴHG GLPHQVLRQDO PHDVXUHPHQW IRU \RXU SODVWLF FRQWDLQHUV DQG SUHIRUPV ®
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