Mohinani is bringing PET bottle-to-bottle recycling to West Africa and is buying two Starlinger plants for this purpose.

The recoSTAR PET iV+ recycling lines produce food-grade rPET that can be used up to 100% in PET preform production.

16:9

Verpackungsmittel aus Kunststoffen

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Verpackungsmaterial

Logistik

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Polyethylenterephthalat

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Thermoplaste

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Bottle-to-Bottle-Recycling in Ghana

At its small-scale PET recycling pilot line in Octeville, France, Sidel will develop its understanding of PET recycling with the aim of giving comprehensive support to the market as it switches to greater use of recycled PET.

Sidel opens a new hub to develop design for recycling primary packaging in Octeville, France.

Sidel Opens Hub to Develop Design for Recycling Primary Packaging

The increasing demand for recyclates and the shortage of food-grade PET flakes pose challenges for batch quality and color consistency.

Repi offers various additives for recycling PET, which can be used, for example, to prevent the material from darkening.

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

kunststoffe-international.com

kunststoffe.de

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Additive

Compensating for Darkening in Recycled PET

New Plastic Heroes: The start-up ForPET worked with industry partners to develop a technology for the production of foamed rPET.

Sergey Nikitenko (in the photo) founded the start-up in 2021 with Mikhail Iakobachvili and Dmitrii Rastorguev. 

ForPET worked with industry partners to develop a technology for the production of foamed rPET.

New Plastic Heroes: ForPET

Start up

Wirtschaft

Unternehmen und Unternehmer

Ehrhardt, Melanie

Verpackungstechnik

Recycling: Foaming instead  of Dreaming

The new plant will immediately produce an approximate 18,000 tons per year of recycled material from near-household collection.

At the new plant, the joint venture produces recycled PET granulate based on bottles from household waste for the production of new preforms and bottles.

Alpla Starts rPET Production in Romania

German specialist for chemical PET recycling expands capacity by up to 200 t of used plastic bottles per day.

From left to right: Jan van Kisfeld Managing Director), Dr. Vivek Tandon (Founder ) and Benjy Thompson (CEO of the Development Authority of Bulloch County).

Unternehmen

Revalyu Builds Major Facility in the USA

Each year, more than one million tons of plastic waste are generated in Kenya – so far unused. T3 wants to change this and invests in a bottle-to-bottle recycling plant from Starlinger.

Around 1,334,000 tons of plastic become waste in Kenya each year.

Starlinger Installs First Plant in Kenya

Neste acquires European rights to Alterra Energy’s thermochemical liquefaction technology.

Alterra Energy’s industrial-scale waste plastics liquefaction unit in Akron, OH/USA.

Acquisition in the Thermochemical Liquefaction Technology Area

In the new recycling pilot plant, customers have the opportunity to develop, test and directly implement new process steps.

The Recycling Innovation Center will be built in the immediate neighborhood of the existing Test Center for bulk materials handling.

Coperion Builds Recycling Innovation Center

CMG presents the EV916 and EV616 models of its Evoluzione series for wet or dry granulation with a granulation capacity from 2000 to over 5000 kg/h.

High capacity shredding and grinding system.

Granulators for Post-Consumer Recycling

The IKV is researching digital solutions for better description and classification of recyclates. The aim is to increase the actual recyclate use rates. Results will be presented at the IKV colloquium in September.

PlasticBOND: Schematic illustration of the platform design to be developed.

Digitale Transformation

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Research to Improve Recyclate Use

Way2K: Interview with Jan Hendrik Ostgathe, Managing Director of Kreyenborg GmbH & Co. KG

Jan Hendrik Ostgathe, Managing Director of Kreyenborg GmbH & Co.

“In the Circular Economy, We Generate Impulses for Each Other” 

Steinert.view is a flexible and reliable monitoring solution for Steinert sensor-based sorting machines. It gives users insight into the availability and output of individual machines, allowing them to learn more about the condition of their applications or sorting facility.

<a href="https://steinertglobal.com/steinert-digital/steinert-view/" target="_blank">Steinert.view</a> in mobile use: the app is available for a wide range of devices and display sizes.

Real-Time Data Visualization

IKV develops recyclable packaging solutions with the help of plasma technologies and presents the current state of research at the IKV colloquium in September.

Oberflächenbeschichtung

Holz

Recyclable Barrier Systems for Sustainable Packaging

European project on increased use of recycled plastics in electronics has started.

The project partners are developing new data-based sorting systems that prevent potentially dangerous substances from entering the plastics recycling loop.

Elektrotechnik, Elektronik

Recycle Plastics from Old Electronic Devices

Production of Injection-Moldable PET-Blends from Mixed Plastic Fractions

Together with the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany, MultiPet GmbH is researching into injection-moldable blends that can be used to produce high-quality multi structured injection-molded parts from mixed PET.

PET recyclates from different materials and colors pose big challenges for recyclers. Together with the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany, MultiPet GmbH is researching into injection-moldable blends that can be used to produce high-quality multi structured injection-molded parts from mixed PET. Only in the area of recycled clear PET samples the desired property profile was not achieved.

Compared to single-sorted PET bottles, the recycling of mixed PET fractions (bottles, blisters, trays, etc.) from the dual system is significantly more demanding.

Which Problems the Processing of Mixed PET Fractions Entails

Due to the large number of impurities, compound components and other plastics in PET mixed fractions, as well as the impairment of the PET through degradation that has already occurred, a number of difficulties can arise by recycling this material.

<ul><li>PET can absorb a significant amount of water, which has to be extracted by thorough drying, to prevent a hydrolytic degradation during the compounding process.</li><li>During the processing of the secondary raw materials (sorted mixed PET fractions) into flakes, a mixture of all dyes and pigments occurs, which remain in the blend after the compounding process and lead to a grey to brown mixed color.</li><li>When PET recyclates are used in new products, additives like oxygen scavengers can lead to a yellowing effect due to the renewed thermal stress. Since all fillers also remain in the flakes after processing, opaque material can be the result after remelting.</li><li>It is unknown how the variety of additives in the different types of plastic interact with one another and pander a degradation of the PET.</li><li>The recycler does not know which types of other plastics are added in the mixed PET.</li><li>The mixture can contain parts of polyamides (PA) as well as unwanted impurities which lead to degradation indications during the processing.</li></ul>

Accordingly, there are currently no commercially used material recycling options for PET mixed fractions. The aim is therefore to produce a recyclate from post-consumer PET plastic mixed fractions using suitable compatibilizers, which can be used for injection molding applications.

The injection-moldable PET blend to be developed must show a certain technical functionality and has to be optimized accordingly. An intrinsic viscosity in the range of [n] = 0.7 dl/g to 0.8 dl/g of the PET types is to be aimed. The use of suitable compatibilizers should, by reducing the interfacial energy, lead to the finest possible distribution of the foreign plastics and thus a large surface area and preferably improve the impact strength/notched impact strength. Furthermore, the crystallization properties have to be adapted to the conventional PET injection molding type and may have to be adjusted by adding nucleating agents. The mechanical properties of the PET blends should correspond to those of commercial PET injection molding materials.

In the course of the selection and characterization of the required materials, quality analyses of the mixed PET 50/50 (328–3) and mixed PET 70/30 (328–2) specification were carried out. In the analysis, the fractions “other dimensionally stable PET packaging” were itemized into trays, trays with peeling film, and blisters and the existing fractions were separated into the food and non-food areas. The extracted samples of the sorted fractions were subsequently examined by means of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Melt Flow Index (MFI), and roast test. On the basis of the results of the quality analysis a cadaster was created. This cadaster contains the mass distribution of the recyclable plastic in relation to the foreign materials and impurities found in the individual sorted fractions of both specifications as well as their belonging to the food or non-food area.

Expansion of the Recyclables Chain and Processing

Obstacles to the use of recyclates can be caused by material and process engineering factors such as discoloration, fine stone inclusions (black spots), IV degradation (intrinsic viscosity), etc. Due to the strong molecular weight loss of the post-consumer PET (PCPET), these were enriched with different additives in the extrusion process. In the further process, the created rPET blend compounds were injected into multi-purpose test rods and tested for their material properties. Small quantities were examined by means of DSC and MFI.

On the basis of the results, the appropriate additives and their required quantity were determined. At typical processing temperatures, the chain fragments react to linear and cyclic oligomers and fragments containing carboxyl groups in turn catalyze the decomposition process. These reactions have a negative effect on the viscosity and lead to a deterioration of the mechanical properties.

Due to the different additives of some of the already degraded post-consumer PETs, no fixed time value for pre-drying could be assumed. Furthermore, the residual moisture content of the samples was continuously checked, until the desired target value was reached. This process served to ensure that surface defects as well as further hydrolytic degradation and the appearance of streaks on the products are avoided. The production of the multi-purpose rods was based on the criteria of the respective DIN regulations, to ensure the comparability and reproducibility of the results.

After completion of the test specimen, those were checked for scratches, twists, gaps, sink marks and burrs. These were additionally checked via straight edges and flat plates.

Samples with deviations were excluded from the test and replaced by new ones. Until testing, the multi-purpose rods were protected in airtight containers from environmental influences, to prevent distortion of results. According to ISO 291 all test specimens were conditioned for 16 hours at 23 °C and 50 % relative humidity prior to testing.

After Injecting the Test Rods, Analysis and Optimization Follows

To characterize the properties of the post-consumer PET compounds, they were investigated in terms of their mechanical properties (tensile, flexural and impact tests) and in relation to their melt volume flow rate (MFR), intrinsic viscosity (IV) as well as physical and chemical transformation processes (DSC).

Highly reactive chain extender additives were used to counteract the degradation process during the processing. Phase mediators were used for finely dispersed distribution and phase mediation of the impurities within the matrix. By adding polycarbonate, the impact strength, flexibility and the desired crystallization behavior should be controlled.

On the basis of the results it was possible to determine that:

<ul><li>the tensile modulus of the rPET blends with a quantity content of 20 % polycarbonate roughly corresponds to that of a high-performance material,</li><li>the tensile strength and elongation at break are greatly increased by the addition of 1 % SEBS maleated maleic acid anhydride,</li><li>the flexural modulus and flexural strength are greatly increased by the addition of 1 % ethylene-octene copolymer maleic anhydride,</li><li>the impact strength of the blends is greatly increased by enrichment with approx. 1 % oligomeric chain extender and</li><li>the intrinsic viscosity of all measured blends is below the required value of 0.7 dl/g.</li></ul>

On the basis of the available results the following optimizations were made:

<ul><li>addition of different epoxy-based chain extenders,</li><li>use of a combination of polycarbonate and chain extender variants in different concentrations,</li><li>addition of a combination of polycarbonate and several different chain extenders in different concentrations.</li></ul>

In the Practical Test, the rPET Blend with Polycarbonate Performs Best

Of the blends tested, the rPET blend with a significant amount of polycarbonate consistently achieved good results in all mechanical tests carried out. All other blends showed deficiencies especially in the tensile modulus and did not reach the stiffness of the reference plastic. The intrinsic viscosity of the rPET blend with polycarbonate was 0.63 dl/g, which was below the targeted property profile with a required intrinsic viscosity of conventional PET injection molding grades of 0.7 to 0.8 dl/g.

The rPET blend with polycarbonate and a special multifunctional reactive polymer recorded an increase of the IV to 0.72 dl/g. The blend is very suitable for injection molding and exhibited consistently high product qualities, which roughly correspond to the desired property profile of commercially available virgin PET. The material used (rPET) is suitable even for the production of finely structured components. Neither optical nor haptic differences can be perceived between the products made from virgin material and recycled material. Moreover, the mechanical properties of both products are at the same level.

In the further process, the already recycled clear PET fraction samples (bottles, trays and blisters) were examined for their properties. The fractions of trays and blisters recorded comparatively low performance in terms of mechanical properties. None of the tested fractions corresponded to the targeted property profile with an intrinsic viscosity of 0.7 to 0.8 dl/g. In particular, the fraction of peels from the food sector, which were coated with peeling film, achieved the lowest intrinsic viscosities of 0.52 and 0.53 dl/g. The results obtained provided indications as to which fractions potentially reduce performance in recycling.

MultiPet GmbH  

https://www.multi-pet.de

Ausgabenartikel

Colorful mixture: the recycling of mixed fractions from bottles, blisters and trays remains a major challenge

Bales of the specification mixed PET 70/30: during the material analysis the material was divided into the fractions other dimensionally stable PET packaging, trays with and without peeling film and blisters

rPET blend compound and injected multi-purpose test rods 

Comparison of the intrinsic viscosity of PET blends and PET arnites

Source: MultiPet GmbH/Veolia;  graphic © Hanser

Forward thinking: application examples for multi structured injection molded components made from mixed PET

Veolia - Hauptartikel

Anke Schadewald has headed the Institute for Plastics Technology and Recycling e. V. (IKTR) in Weissandt-Gölzau, Germany, since 2006; <a href="mailto:anke.schadewald@iktr-online.de">anke.schadewald@iktr-online.de</a>

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gillian Gerke has been a professor in the WUBS department at the University of Applied Sciences in Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany, in the fields of resource management, life cycle assessment and international waste management since 2012. As team leader of the “Raw Materials Workshop” task force, she works in depth in the plastics recycling field.

Thomas Plumbohm is a project member in the work group “Raw Materials Workshop” at the University of Applied Science in Magdeburg-Stendal.

Dr.-Ing. Herbert Snell is managing director of MultiPet GmbH (Veolia), which has been recycling PET material from the deposit system and household collections for 20 years.

issue 02/2023

issue 01/2023

issue 09/2022

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