TECHNOLOGY | WASHING
Right: The Twister series of friction washers are part of Lindner Washtech’s product portfolio
hot-wash system can be operated with water or a caustic solution operating at a washing temperature between 50C and 85C and is ideal for PET and post-consumer plastics applications. It can be integrated into a water treatment facility if required, with automatic monitoring and control of the caustic solution.
Lindner developed a unit
that combines its hot-wash system with a PET hot-wash tower and Lindner’s Step series of dryers, developed specifically for the PET sector. The hot-wash system removes adhesives, labels, and prints from PET bottles. The PET hot-wash tower can operate with or without caustic solution and works with a separate water circuit. The unit provides gentle cleaning and defined dwell times to guarantee high-quality output materials. Lindner said the first PET line with the new components has been sold in a German-speaking country, with commissioning to take place in autumn. Lindner Washtech supplied the turnkey line, which includes NIR sorting, label remover and water treatment.
Projects in Australia The Ecotech division of Amut Recycling Technology was selected as the turnkey equipment supplier for three world-class recycling projects in Australia over the last few years that incorporate its washing and other technologies to recycle post-consumer plastic packaging into high-quality resins. Amut was commissioned for two PET and one PE
project by Circular Plastics Australia (CPA), a joint-venture company created by Australia’s Pact Group, the largest plastics recycler in the country, plus Cleanaway, a compatriot waste management and resource recovery company, and two consumer goods/beverage makers serving the region, Asahi Beverages and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. CPA invests in technology and platforms to accelerate a plastics circular economy in the region by process- ing post-consumer and post-industrial waste. Pact Group manages the build and operations
of the recycling facilities, while Cleanaway provides the plastic waste to be recycled through its collection and sorting network. Asahi Beverages and CCEP are involved in the PET projects, where they use the recycled material to make100% rPET beverage bottles. Pact Group manufactures food and beverage packaging from the recycled materials for its customers. CPA announced that a US $50m PET recycling facility capable of recycling the equivalent of up to
20 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2024
1bn 600 ml PET bottles a year commenced operations late last year. The Melbourne- based facility is capable of producing 2.5 tonnes of
recycled PET per hour (up to 20,000 tpa of rPET), while
trimming CO2 emissions by 79%
IMAGE: LINDNER
compared to processing virgin PET, according to CPA. The Melbourne facility (also given the moniker the Symphony plant), can also process low viscosity PET tubs and trays. According to Gordon Olsen, Director
of Sales at Amut North America, Amut’s washing lines at the Symphony plant are equipped with the best technical solutions to guarantee high purity of the final rPO/rPET flakes and, in particular, the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants and separation of PSA labels and glue. The automated washing systems ensure extremely low operational costs with reduced consumption of power, water consumption and chemicals. The facility incorporates multiple infrared and optical sorters that firstly separate out any non-PET material, such as bottle lids, labels, and metals. The PET bottles are then shredded, ground, and washed before the flaked material goes through a two-stage heating and drying process. The washed flake undergoes an extrusion and purification process to produce the recycled PET material. The Symphony plant is similar in size and capability to Duet, a PET recycling facility in Albury, New South Wales, that CPA commissioned Amut to supply equipment to, and which commenced operations in 2022. In February this year, Amut said the high performance of its recycling equipment at the facility has allowed processing output there to increase from 3,400 kg/hr to 4,000 kg/hr. Amut supplied two washing lines for a CPA
project designed to produce food-grade rHDPE and rPP resin from 500m milk bottles, containers and food tubs collected locally as kerbside waste. Pact Group and Cleanaway formed the Choir project which operates a state-of-the-art facility in the Victoria region of Australia, processing more than 20,000 tpa. According to Amut, the turnkey solution included a patented sorting solution and washing process to achieve high purity flakes. Amut’s equipment sorts the valuable materials, including natural colour HDPE containers, coloured HDPE containers and PP containers, from the stream of mixed plastic bottles into individual streams. The material, stored in buffers, is automatically dosed to one of two 2,000 kg/hr washing lines. One washing
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
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