The recycling of PET bottles has gained global acceptance during the last 20 years and has become a model of the circular economy of plastic. This development has been driven by Erema’s bottle-by-bottle innovations. During this time, the Austrian recycling machine manufacturer has set new standards, and has repeated this concretely with its Vacurema technology as it is the heart of the new Vacunite process. As a result, PET bottles with a high recycled content (a feature clearly stated on the label) are now more commonly seen on store shelves. The demand for innovative PET recycling technologies has grown globally across the PET segment.
“Despite the decline in beverages due to the coronavirus pandemic and a tense situation in the recycling industry due to the drop in the price of virgin raw material, there is still a high interest in our PET recycling technologies,” informs Christoph Wöss, Head of Business Development at the Erema GmbH Group. One of the reasons for this is the advanced technology that combines high product safety, a stable and cost-efficient process. Another reason is that all the well-known brand manufacturers, politicians and society in general are committed to making plastic recycling and the circular economy work. The EU has set its position on this issue with targets for recycling quotas and minimum recycling levels for PET bottles.
Michael Heitzinger (managing director, Erema), Christoph Wöss (business development manager in der EremaGroup GmbH) and Patrick Rachinger (product group manager, Erema) at the New Customer Service Center, where the Vacunite system for material testing to be installed. Photo: Erema.
Erema, represented in Spain by Protecnic 1967 estimates that the total capacity of all PET recycling machines sold to date for various applications amounts to 2.6 million tons per year, with a trend clearly pointing to large-scale systems for process from 2,000 kg / h onwards.
In this sense, a recycling system installed in Mexico this year stands out, which consists of two Vacurema BASIC T machines with a production capacity of 4,000 kg / h each and Solid State Polycondensation (SSP- Solid State Polycondensation in English). “The client has planned an annual production of 60,000 Tn of rPET suitable for food contact. These are the largest systems we’ve ever built, but we already have an even bigger queue than this, ”says Christoph Wöss.
Erema is particularly pleased with the success of the novel Vacunite technology, which redefines the benchmark for bottle-to-bottle recycling performance and on December 10 was awarded the Plastics Recycling Award 2020 in the Recycling Machinery Innovation of the Year category. In less than two years, the energy efficient systems, developed in cooperation with Polymetrix, have already been sold to 13 customers worldwide. The Vacunite process combines a vacuum and nitrogen technology that ensures maximum decontamination efficiency, with the best rPET color values, as well as superior rPET ratios in the final bottles. One of these systems has recently been installed at RCS Group in Germany. Alexander Rimmer, CEO of the RCS Group, is more than satisfied with the quality of the rPET produced, because “our tests show that we achieve the values for all potential contaminants that are significantly below our target values or that are not detectable at all. “.
The right recycling solution for every PET application
Growth is driven by more than positive development in the bottle-to-bottle sector.
Process PET flakes directly to preforms (flake to preform) or film in one step (made possible by using the Multi Purpose Reactor, which can be installed as an upgrade to any existing film extrusion line – bottle to sheet) and especially in recycled pellets for the textile industry (bottle to POY) also increases the demand of this segment.
In total, Erema has been able to deliver 42 plants with a total capacity of 643,000 t / year between October 2019 and October 2020. This is practically the equivalent of the capacity of all PET recycling machines sold between 2011 and 2018, for This suggests that capacity is continuously increasing while highlighting Erema’s position as a market and innovation leader.
Extended all-inclusive service for PET customers
Following the successful development of the PET recycling market, the number of process engineering specialists and commissioning teams working at these plants is also growing. As a service to its customers, Erema specialists take on the task of requesting evaluations of the respective recycling processes by the European Food and Safety Authority (efsa), as well as providing advice and support in the preparation of the approval processes required for the production of rPET suitable for food contact. Following the expansion of office and manufacturing space, the company’s customer service center at its Ansfelden headquarters is also expanding. Testing of materials using the Vacunite process will also take place at Erema, beginning in the beginning of the first half of 2021.
Investigation and development
With the aim of developing and implementing systems that close the circle comparable to the bottle-to-bottle cycle with other types of packaging, Erema participates in several research projects such as PET2PACK and CORNET PolyCycle. PET2PACK works on the development of rigid recycled PET products that are suitable for use in food packaging.
CORNET PolyCycle is focused on developing a comprehensive testing strategy for the evaluation of recycled plastic polymers that will pave the way for the use of recycled polyolefins and polystyrene in contact with food. “We hope that intensive cooperation with our research and development partners on projects like these will provide us with the knowledge we need to make great strides in the recycling industry in the years to come,” says Michael Heitzinger, CEO of Erema.