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high performance vacuum is applied. This configuration enables easy decontamination of the material from harmful chemicals and makes the LSP process most suitable for food-contact uses. A “challenge test” conducted by Fraunhofer IVV in Germany provides the required scientific evidence for the decontamination performance of the process. In this test, PET bottle flakes are purposely contaminated with various different chemicals. These flakes are then recycled by the LSP process and the remainders of the chemicals are analysed by Fraunhofer IVV. The graph shows the cleaning capacity of the LSP process being close to 100%. The yellow curve indicates the requirements by the European Food Safety Authority. Based on these tests the US Food and Drug Administration issued a Non-Objection-Letter for applications in 100% food- contact in November 2013. The first P:REACT unit was installed in March 2015
and is producing rPET pellets from fibre scrap. The PET fibres are collected from various points in the spinning process and contain up to 15% of spin oil.
Customer use A shredder-feeder-extruder combination provides the PET melt and a first degassing. As the PET melt is introduced into P:REACT the IV is lifted from 0.56 dl/g to 0.66 dl/g within a variation of less than +/- 0.015 dl/g. The required elimination of the spin oil content comes automatically with the high decontamination perfor- mance of the unit. The customer reuses the pellets from P:REACT in his spin process simultaneously with virgin PET without any spin process adaptation. The simplicity of P:REACT involves only two
parameters of control: the level of vacuum and the residence time of the molten PET inside the equipment. The IV is measured inline and provides a signal for the
Input Material IV-Value (dl/g) 0.62 (PET Fiber) moisture 3600 ppm
Shredder- Feeder- Extruder Combination
Decontamination performance of the LSP process Source: Fraunhofer IVV
automatic control of the machine parameters. This, together with a simple reactor configuration, ensures easy operation and low maintenance costs. P:REACT works extremely energy-efficiently, as the
reactor basically only requires energy for maintaining the heat level of the molten PET. Energy measurements at P:REACT show a specific consumption of only 0.12 kwh/kg including pelletising. The graphic (top) shows the processing of PET fibres at IV of 0.62 dl/g, with an output of 350 kg/h on a shredder-feeder-extruder combination. The rPET pellets show an IV of 0.70 dl/g. This year, more P:REACTs are to be installed. One
unit is for in-house recycling of thermoforming skel- etons with an output of 2,000 kg/h. Another installation is a stand-alone unit for used PET carpet recycling. ❙
www.ngr.at
P:REACT Pelletizing
rPellets IV-Value (dl/g) 0.70
Processing example using P:REACT
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
Source: NGR June 2017 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 25
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