EXTRUSION LINES | TECHNOLOGY


combined lines, core technology developed by leading suppliers can provide solutions to difficul- ties faced by a customer which then adds a new revenue stream. Starlinger Recycling Technology came to the aid of CarbonLite Industries, the growing US PET recycler which reprocesses up to 45,000 US tons of PET bottles at its plant in Dallas, Texas. in June and July, it installed a Starlinger RecoStar PET 125 HC IV+ bottle-to-bottle recycling line at the plant to handle not just clear PET bottle flakes, but also more challenging material streams such as coloured material and PET fines. Through- put of the line is 950-1,050 kg/h. “We initially approached Starlinger for a solution for our PET fines,” said Leon Farahnik, Chairman and CEO of CarbonLite Industries. “But the longer we discussed the project with them, the more Starlinger customised the recycling line, giving us maximum flexibility to process a great variety of input streams into high-end rPET pellets.” PET fines are small particles of 1-3 mm in size


that are a by-product of washing and grinding. These fines tend to show higher surface moisture and have a lower intrinsic viscosity (IV) than regular bottle flakes, and they typically contain a larger amount of contaminants such as paper, glue, metal, or PVC. As a result, many recyclers do not process the fines together with PET bottle flakes, but instead sell them off for use in different applications. CarbonLite wanted to find a way to use the fines waste in a more profitable and sustainable way. Starlinger offered an all-in-one solution that can operate with PET fines as well as PET bottle flakes, or with a mixture of both. The line consists of all the main PET recycling line stages: predrying, extru- sion, degassing, melt filtration, pelletising, crystal- lisation and solid-state polycondensation. Star- linger said that due to the special characteristics of PET fines, the steps that require particular attention are melt filtration and decontamination as well as IV increase during solid-state polycondensation. The recycling of PET fines requires a melt filter


with a large surface area and an advanced self- cleaning mode in order to extract the high amounts of contamination. The MPB1940P supplied by Starlinger recycling technology is a continuous melt filter with a special design for the efficient removal of solid contaminants. Starlinger said: “Two pistons that carry 8 screens provide a total open filter surface of 1,940 cm². When the surface of a screen becomes clogged, the backflush function cleans it fully automatically: the contami- nants are flushed out through pressure build-up and a reversal of the melt flow.” The issue with IV is that due to their higher


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Left: CarbonLite has installed a Starlinger RecoStar PET 125 HC IV+ bottle-to-bottle recycling line at its plant in Dallas, US


surface moisture and level of contamination, fines tend to lower the IV of the recycled material. CarbonLite operates a Starlinger solid-state polycondensation reactor to raise IV to the re- quired level and for superior colour values. The need to meet specific requirements led film


recycler Enviroplast to select Erema’s core technol- ogy. Enviroplast, which processes around 2,000 tonnes of LDPE and LLDPE film production scrap every month at its plant in Montreal, Canada, decided in favour of an Intarema 2021 TVEplus for an expansion project earlier this year. The PE scrap comes from a number of sources, but the Intarema line enables output of up to 2,700 kg/hour which means Enviroplast’s production capacity can be increased by 85%. Enviroplast is also considering processing post-consumer plastics in the future, according to Erema.


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.binovapm.it � www.kraussmaffeiberstorff.com � www.erema.com � www.coperion.com � www.amutgroup.com � www.viscotec.at � www.estpakplastik.eu � www.greenmind.mx � www.gneuss.com � www.starlinger.com


September/October 2018 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 21


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