Erema said manufacturers are banking on its energy-saving add-on technology, including for food contact compatibility.
Last year, Erema re-launched its Multi-Purpose Reactor (MPR) at its Discovery Day.
The Austrian based manufacturer of plastics recycling machines says that for customers looking to transform their existing PET extrusion plants for food contact compliant end products, the MPR comes across a highly efficient crystallisation dryer.
Through the MPR, Erema says that decontamination, drying, dedusting and crystallization of various PET input materials are all done in one single step in preparation for extrusion.
In the last one year, Erema claims that there has been an increasing trend towards the food contact grade direct processing of PET products, coinciding with the relaunch of the MPR.
The manufacturer has claimed further that a growing number of customers are improving their existing extrusion plant by adding the feature of food contact compliance.
According to Erema bottle sector business development manager Christoph Wöss, the MPR is growing in popularity with customers who have a traditional crystalliser and pre-dryer and are challenged with long process times and high operating expenses.
Wöss added: “With energy consumption at only 0.1 kWh/kg, the MPR is a crystalliser and pre-dryer at the same time, making it the economically interesting alternative.”
“Input materials such as washed PET bottle flakes, ground PET flat sheet waste and virgin PET material plus mixtures of them are decontaminated and therefore already food contact compliant before extrusion.”
About 1.3 million tonnes of PET are already recycled annually across the world using its Vacurema technology, stated Erema.
Included in the end products are food contact compliant performs that are required for beverage sector, thermoforming sheet, strapping and fibres.
