Plastic Recycling
COMPLETE SYSTEMS FOR
MAKING GREAT PRODUCTS WITH RECYCLED CONTENT
Plastic Recycling – with Pelletron Technology
Pelletron's systems process over 35 billion PET bottles a year.
Recycled bottles provide an environmentally friendly source of material for new products. Recycling one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
It is common practice for plastics processing companies to grind plastic scrap for reuse. The regrind is dusty and needs to be cleaned before reprocessing in a molding machine or extruder. The Pelletron DeDuster is the most efficient dust removal machine on the market for this purpose. The quality of the cleaned regrind is nearly as good as virgin resin. Pelletron DeDuster systems are available in many sizes and configurations making them the obvious choice for a variety of applications in a broad range of capacities.
Leading Technology
STRANDPHASE®
Slow dilute phase conveying is gentle
DeDuster®
World class technology to remove dust and streamers
Pellbow®
Reduces wear and eliminates streamers in elbows
Recycling of PET Bottles
One of the most challenging tasks in recycling is the transformation of PET bottles into resins of high enough quality to yield superior finished products. Large scale recycling plants are being built around the world to address this challenge. For these plants, Pelletron developed a rotary valve with special inlet geometry and a V-shaped rotor. Pelletron uses this valve in conjunction with the unique pellcon3® conveying technology for efficient transfer of the bottle regrind and finished pellets, along with the DeDuster®, the ideal machine for separation of impurities from the PET flakes.
Typical PET Recycling Plant Design
PET bottles of all colors and shapes typically arrive at recycling plants compacted and in bales. The bales are cut open and the bottles are processed through an intense rinse cycle. This is followed by a number of proprietary processes for flattening, sorting and distribution into clear and green flake lines. After being divided, the bottles go through additional processing steps including initial grinding, a final wash cycle, and the separation of polyolefin (PO) materials from metal contaminants. The PO material passes through secondary grinders to produce a relatively uniform, sellable flake product. Before storage, this material passes through a series of quality checks, a special cone blend silo to achieve homogeneous product quality, a Pelletron DeDuster® for removal of fines and streamers, and a final sorter to assure the best color purity.
Repelletizing PET
Some plants are designed to convert these regrind flakes into high, virgin-quality PET pellets for the production of food grade packaging. In order to get high quality PET resins, the removal of paper, labels and other contaminants is critical. The flakes then go through a proprietary pelletizing process where the intrinsic viscosity (IV) of the flakes is increased and the material is transformed into a uniform pellet shape for easy handling. Before reaching the storage silos, the pellets go through a series of quality checks to ensure the highest standards in uniformity and quality.
The Cleaning Process
All DeDuster® systems are equipped with one or more electromagnetic flux field coils located at the product inlet and/or outlet. These coils produce a low level electromagnetic flux field to break the electro static bond between fine dust and finished product. The flux field covers the entire cleaning area, called the wash deck. Pressurized wash air flows through the wash decks and the Venturi Zone which removes dust and other contaminants. This combination of electromagnetic flux field and air flow effectively removes fines to a level well below the industry standard. The pictures below show the contaminated flakes before cleaning in a DeDuster®, the removed contaminants, the cleaned flakes and the finished PET resin.
For more information you can download our recycling brochure at the bottom of this page.
Material Handling System for PET Bottle Flakes and Pellets
This generic flow sheet shows the layout of a Material Handling System for PET Bottle Flakes and Pellets
The DeDuster® can be stationary or mobile.
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