TECHNOLOGY | WASHING SYSTEMS
Above: Amut has upgraded the flake washing system at Mohawk
Industries’ PET washing plant in the US
recycling plants in Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Tunisia. Following a trial at Sorema’s Recycling Research
Center in Alzate Brianza, Italy, earlier this year, Myanmar-based company Commercial Plastics started up a PET bottle recycling plant in Yangon using Sorema equipment including a prewashing module to remove labels and to ensure optimal cleaning of the material’s surface. This technology is said to enable improved sorting of the bottles and reduce overall wear on the line without compromising the lifespan of the delabeler. The Southeast Asian market is moving from PVC to PP labels, and Sorema says its technology efficiently removes the glue used with these labels. Earlier this year, recycling systems company
Amut announced the successful upgrade of the flake washing system at Mohawk Industries’ PET washing plant in Summerville, Georgia, US, where, after a successful trial, the flooring manufacturer had a 4,000 kg/h flake washing system installed. Mark Dye, Mohawk’s VP of Recycling Operations,
said of the project: “Our engineering team worked very closely with the Amut design, fabrication, and installations teams. The challenges of working through Covid protocols were complicated, yet the teams rose to the challenges and were successful in the implementation of the line into our existing system. The remarkable issue about the Amut flake washing system is that we reduced the water and chemicals consumption in the cleaning process while achieving better quality. The Amut Friction Washer is a great machine for removing and cleaning our PET flakes, along with their Turbo washer unit, which assists in the removal of the inorganic fines that are embedded in the dirty MRF PET bottle bales. The cleanliness translates into improved performance in our downstream processes.” Agricultural film, generally comprising green- house films and mulch films in addition to other items such as insect nets, plays a key role in agriculture production. If the film is not properly disposed of, the residue left in the soil will destroy
36 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2023
the soil structure and reduce the yield and quality of crops. Therefore, in recent years there has been an onus on reducing the pollution caused by agricultural films, something best achieved by increasing effective recycling. When policies supporting the recycling of agricultural film started to emerge in different countries, Chinese company Retech Machinery saw a market opportunity and developed a set of waste film cleaning and granulation systems integrating software and hardware, and covering various processes such as crushing, washing, dehydration, and granulation. “This solution is specially designed to solve the problem of plastic film cleaning and granulation. It is suitable for all kinds of film waste such as agricultural film, mulch film and woven bags with a thickness of about 1-25mm,” the company says. The systems can be modified to customer
requirements and there are also non-modular configurations. Furthermore, the products adopt Siemens PLC and touch screen automatic control, which can collect and analyse operational data to give the user more flexibility and freedom.
Deinking progress Inks on packaging can often be an obstacle to recycling, as the inks degrade during the recycling process and can contaminate the recyclate, resulting in unpleasant odours or residue colours. With deinking technologies, even if the inks are not completely removed, the opportunities for recy- cling are greatly increased. Erema Group subsidi- ary Keycycle has worked with the Spanish com- pany Cadel Deinking for two years to develop ways of effectively and efficiently removing printing inks from the surfaces of plastic, refining the method until hitting on one that involves dissolving the ink from the surface of the shredded film or regrind material during the decolourisation process. Only water-based chemical components are used, which makes the process particularly environmentally friendly. The material is then fed into a recycling extruder. Of the eight plants ordered since the market launch, five are now in operation at customers’ sites, where they are said to be delivering impressive results. The partnership has proved so successful that
Keycycle has now acquired the Cadel Deinking brand, and will continue to develop the technol- ogy it presented at K2022 and market the deinking technology under the Keycycle Deinking brand. The Cadel company continues to operate as Cadel Recycling Lab, and says it remains dedicated to its core competence of developing new technologies
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: AMUT
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