ODOUR AND EMISSIONS | TECHNOLOGY
during the odour reduction cycle and the customer can analyse them directly their own laboratory. Austrian recycling systems specialist Erema
reports a noticeable increase in demand for recycling plant incorporating its ReFresher technol- ogy for reducing odour downstream of the extru- sion process. “Odour is a typical problem with contaminated household waste such as polyethyl- ene films, containers and closures. It is essential that odour is removed if the PCR material is to be reused in high quality packaging for cosmetic products or food,” says Clemens Kitzberger, Erema Group Business Development Manager for Post- Consumer Applications. Kitzberger says growth in demand for odour
reduction systems is driven both by the ambitious recycling goals set by the European Union, as well as the fact that recycling technologies are becom- ing increasingly efficient. “Both of these factors have made applications possible for PCR that were unimaginable a few years ago, and this trend is set to continue,” he says. An established example of a high-end product
made from post-consumer recyclate, he says, is a shower gel bottle for Werner & Mertz launched in 2019 in 100% PCR HDPE. The recyclate is pro- duced by an Intarema TVEplus RegrindPro machine plus the ReFresher module. Erema says this recycling process was certified by the FDA two years ago as suitable for production of material for use in milk and juice bottles, as well as meat trays, disposable tableware and cutlery, provided the input material comes from milk and juice bottles. In November 2020, the FDA con- firmed an additional input stream — now HDPE closures used on HDPE, PP and PET beverage bottles can also be processed and recycled material can be used in production of containers for direct contact with food of all kinds at up to 100%. “While the high degassing extrusion system
removes mainly highly volatile, low molecular weight substances, the ReFresher ensures a significant reduction of the low volatile, high molecular weight organic compounds in the recycled pellets,” says Thomas Hofstätter, Erema Process Engineer. Erema has an extruder-ReFresher combination for industrial-scale customer testing in its expand- ed customer centre at Ansfelden in Austria. It also has mobile ReFresher module that can be integrat- ed into on-site recycling processes for trials. In August last year, Starlinger Recycling
Technology received two “Letters of No Objection” from the FDA for its HDPE food grade recycling technology, including odour reduction. These say
64 COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2022
Left: Erema’s
ReFresher technology provides a significant reduction in low
volatile, high molecular weight organic compounds
that post-consumer recycled HDPE regranulate produced using the process is suitable for food- contact applications at levels of up to 100 % recycled content (this applies for HDPE from bottle-to-bottle and and cap-to-cap recycling processes). The resulting HDPE regranulate can be used for food-contact packaging such as milk and juice bottles and caps, meat trays, disposable tableware and cutlery. The Starlinger process consists of three main steps
— material preparation, degassing, and post-treat- ment — and is said to eliminate even deeply embed- ded odours. “Compared to methods which merely bind odours through the use of additives and thereby enclose them in the final pellet, the Starlinger process removes the foreign substances that cause the smell and delivers permanently smell-improved pellets,” the company says. The machine concept comprises a recoSTAR
recycling line with a C-VAC module combined with downstream odour reduction equipment. The machine setup may vary individually depending on the plastic (it can handle a variety of polymers), its source, and the type and intensity of the odour, as well as the specific requirements on the end product.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
http://www.aromaticfusion.com/
addisperse.html �
www.microban.com �
www.evonik.com �
www.ampacet.com �
www.luigibandera.com �
www.coperion.com �
www.erema.com �
https://www.starlinger.com/en/recycling/
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: EREMA
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