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Turkish PET perform processor Köksan has contracted plant construction engineering firm Uhde-Fischer to build the processor a new 216,000-tonne/yr plant for the production of PET in Gaziantep, Turkey. The plant will be based on Uhde-Fischer's Melt-to-Resin technology, which does away with solid state polymerization to save energy and to realize other benefits.

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Preform processor orders its own PET plant

A further investment for a second identical line is expected soon. The first plant is designed to produce various grades of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). With the new plant, which will be built next to Köksan's existing PET preform molding and bottling facilities in Gaziantep, the company aims to become the leading supplier of PET in Turkey. Köksan was a metal packaging processor for almost four decades before it began stretch blowmolding PET bottles and jars in 1997; in 2004 it took its perform molding in-house.

Uhde-Fischer's Melt-to-Resin (MTR) process creates pellets without need for solid state polymerization (SSP); doing with SSP is said to lead to substantial energy savings. Doing away with it also helps reduce investment, operating and maintenance costs. MTR produces PET from terephthalic acid (PTA) and mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) using a two-reactor system in melt phase up to the ready-to-use intrinsic viscosity (iV) for bottle or film sheet applications.

Uhde-Fischer says the 2R-MTR combination cuts a supplier's cost of converting PTA and MEG into PET by up to 28% compared to conventional polycondensation technologies. 

In the past 12 months the company has built or been tasked to build MTR plants for PET sheet extruder Octal and for PET supplier Indorama.

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