PET | TECHNOLOGY
The potential for growth in PET fibre- to-fibre recycling has caught the eye of technology companies keen to highlight the suitability of their systems for fibre applications. David Eldridge reports on developments from the K2022 exhibition
PET machinery groups explore fibre recycling
Polyester fibre manufacturers use huge volumes of PET in the yarn products they supply to the textiles industry. Yet the waste arising from fibre spinning has not been seen as suitable for recycling into new fibre products. That situation is starting to change, though, as the move to circularity in the clothes market is placing a new emphasis on reusing waste generated in the value chain. Spotting an emerging trend, PET recycling machinery groups are demonstrating that high quality fibre-to-fibre recycling can be achieved with their solutions for decontamination and intrinsic viscosity (IV) control, as recent developments at BBE, Erema, Gneuss and Starlinger show. During K2022, BB Engineering showed the know-how it is able to bring from the fibre-producing sector to the growing plastics recycling industry. The VacuFil system it exhibited is a PET recycling line which can process post-production and post- consumer material in configurations that include fibre-to-fibre and bottle-to-pellet. The company also
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
showed its VarioFil R+ system, a variant of its VarioFil fibre spinning lines which can process rPET directly to partially oriented polyester yarn (POY). BB Engineering is not new to the plastics
industry. It is a joint venture between film extrusion line producer Brückner Maschinenbau and fibre spinning line producer Oerlikon Barmag. Speaking to Plastics Recycling World at K2022, executives said BB Engineering had been formed to manufacture extruders and from there it went on to develop melt filters and recycling lines, which can process a variety of input materials including bottle flakes, films, start-up lumps and textile waste as well as fibre waste. Klaus Schäfer, Managing Director, says the
exhibits at K2022 show how fibre waste can be used in an integrated system where the recycling line delivers melt direct to the spinning line. At the same time as K2022, a BBE and Oerlikon Barmag open house event at its facility in Remscheid demonstrated VacuFil Visco+ recycling technology in operation
March/April 2023 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 13
Main image: Polyester fibres: a potential source of waste feedstock as well as an end-market for PET recyclers
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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