Vacurema technology

Vacurema

Erema's Vacurema systems offer modular solutions for different solutions for recycling of PET bottles. The patented process is designed for the recycling of post consumer PET bottle flakes, PET in-house waste and also PE-HD bottle flakes.

Erema claims that there are currently more than 150 Vacurema systems in use around the world, producing high-quality pellets and end products with an overall capacity of over 1 million tonnes.

Basic principles

* Flexibility with input material Depending on the end application the system processes PET bottle flakes, ground amorphous skeleton waste/edge trim and virgin material (also in mixtures), i.e. bulk densities of 250 to 850 kg/m³. * Food contact compliant decontamination Thanks to the patented pre-treatment of PET flakes, IV increase and decontamination are fast, reliable and energy-saving. This means that FDA quality (among other things) can be ensured for the end products produced. * IV stability through vacuum treatment Despite varying moisture levels and different IV values in the input material, stable IV values are achieved through the patented pre-treatment method. This means, therefore, that input materials with higher material moisture levels can also be recycled. * Melting under vacuum The patented pre-treatment at raised temperature and in high vacuum before the extrusion process removes moisture and migration materials from the feedstock very effectively and in a stable process environment. This prevents any hydrolytic and oxidative decomposition of the melt in the extruder. Low thermal stress The very short extruder screw without additional extruder degassing reduces the thermal stress on the material through minimised dwell time. Large area ultrafine melt filtration EREMA filter systems have very large active filter surfaces. This enables filtration with up to 32 μm fineness at low pressure. The result is highly clean pellets.

• Compact design

Thanks to their compact design, VACUREMA ®

systems require 

much less space than other systems. Minimum production costs with ecoSAVE ® Electricity accounts for 38 % of the costs of bottle-to-bottle recycling. Thanks to integrated ecoSAVE ®

technology, 

VACUREMA ®

systems stand out through the lowest production 

costs of all systems on the market. Smart Start principle The plant‘s software-based process control system gives you extremely easy and reliable operation and premium user-friend - liness including automatic start-up at the press of a button, fully automatic continuous operation, permanent monitoring for direct food contact (FCC) and the storage of all relevant process parameters. Turnkey solutions We deliver you turnkey systems with competent support from one contact for the entire recycling process: sorting – washing – decontamination – extrusion – quality control – end product.

Three application fields

Bottle-to-Bottle rPET pellets which not only fulfil but exceed all current minimum requirements with regard to direct food contact for PET packaging solutions: that is the end product in bottle-to-bottle recycling with VACUREMA Prime technology. This high-end PET extrusion system features two crystallisation dryers operating in batch mode. A compact, space-saving all-in-one solution which achieves IV increases and a remarkable cleaning effect. As the user you are flexible at all times and can react quickly to current market requirements: whether it‘s decontaminated, pre-dried and crystallised rPET flakes or high-quality, melt-filtered rPET pellets – products produced using VACUREMA Prime technology fulfil the respective criteria of the FDA, EFSA and many major brand owners. If IV values of > 0.9 dl/g or very high throughputs (> 2500 kg/h) are required, EREMA can offer VACUREMA technology also in combination with an SSP solution from Polymetrix.

Approved for direct food contact Operating mode 1 100 % rPET pellets Operating mode 2 100 % rPET flakes Operating mode 3 100 % rPET flakes and rPET pellets (simultaneous) Bühler Thermal Processes AG a former Bühler Group Company Brand Owner appr O ved Technical benefits • Minimum thermal stress and minimum discoloration

thanks to 

single energy input, preheated material and shortened extruder length • Batch operation

– guaranteed, 

adjustable dwell times for every single flake in the two crystallisation dryers ensure maximum cleaning efficiency • Highly efficient decontamination fulfils and also far exceeds all well-known minimum purity requirements for direct food contact already after the batch process • FDA approved

(EFSA approval 

requested via customers and obtained), certification from major brand owners • Large area ultrafine melt filtration • Stable PET melt processing

with 

IV increase of up to 6 to 10 % • AA (acetaldehyde) content in pellets less than 1 ppm –

possible 

in combination with optional pellet flusher (no flusher required in the case of pre-drying before preform production) • Possible to process flakes from cooking oil bottles How it works Two parallel vacuum crystallisation dryers are each filled with amorphous, washed PET flakes via a vacuum lock. The crystallisation dryers operate in what is referred to as batch mode. The exceptionally high level of purity of the rPET that is produced is achieved by an exactly defined and guaranteed minimum treatment time for every single thin-walled PET flake in high vacuum and at high temperature. Purity and IV requirements placed on the end product (rPET pellets) can be adapted individually by selecting appropriate batch times. The two identical crystallisation dryers are placed immediately upstream of a continuous VACUREMA ® Basic extrusion system. Economic benefits • rPET pellets identical in consistency and appearance to virgin material, choice of amorphous or crystalline • Low production costs

through 

specific energy consumption of 0.32 to 0.36 kWh/kg • Total production costs for rPET from PET flake only approx. 0.10 euros per kg of finished BTB pellets • Compact, space-saving design (feeding system not shown) Feeding (discontinuous) PET Flake PET Flake Vacuum lock Vacuum lock Vacuum pump Vacuum pre-treatment unit (discontinuous) Vacuum reactor, continuous operation VACUREMA ® Basic extrusion system 32 μ m high-performance filter with large active filter area Page 8 - 9