AMUT SpA equipment installations now boast hourly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycling of 1.5 million containers/hr following the recent start-up of two of its washing lines for the processing of post-consumer PET into bottle-to-bottle flake. The lines recently began operations in Toluca, Mexico for Petstar SA de CV, the largest PET recycler in Mexico, and outside Paris for France Plastique Recyclage (FPR; La-Neuve-Lyre).
Petstar’s Toluca plant has total output of 3000 kg/hr (20,000 tons/yr), with whole flakes pelletized for food applications though Bühler technology. FPR, which began production February 2008, utilizes Starlinger systems (recoSTAR PET 165 iV+ and two viscoSTAR 75 lines) for the extrusion/solid-state polycondensation and decontamination of pellets. Petstar’s wholly owned subsidiary, Avangard Mexico SA de CV, is the largest collector of post-consumer plastic in Mexico, collecting more than 74,000 tonnes of PET in 2006.
In Toluca, AMUT installed the system so that production could be doubled as early as the end of 2010. In September 2009, FRP launched a plant with the capacity to convert 40,000 tons of PET bottles annually, with an hourly output of 4000 kg of finished product. For this site, the 5.5 tons/hr of material at the inlet corresponds to 20–25 bales, requiring an automated system from AMUT to break up scrap bales and eliminate steel bands.
AMUT’s patented “cold” high-friction Whole Bottle Pre-Wash technology is replacing a traditional AMUT hot design. The new technology still can be used to treat highly polluted post-consumer PET bottles, while cutting power usage and overall capital cost. —[email protected]
