It is already working at PT. Kahatex – certainly one of Indonesia’s largest producers of woven and circular-knitted materials: Oerlikon Barmag Huitong Engineering’s homogenization expertise for mechanically recycling ready polyester (PET) waste akin to post-industrial waste (popcorn), bottle flakes and movies. This key part ensures an evenly-homogeneous soften, influences the rise in viscosity and therefore allows the manufacturing of outlined rPET preliminary merchandise for additional processing akin to soften, chips and fiber supplies for direct spinning.

Reusing waste is more and more turning into a pattern inside the textile business as effectively: in May 2022, PT. Kahatex commissioned a system with a each day capability of 25 tons for recycling popcorn and bottle flakes into textile-quality chips for manufacturing POY and DTY. Traditionally, Southeast Asia’s largest family-run enterprise is dedicated to ecological accountability and is targeted on manufacturing high-end textiles for the Asian, US and European markets. Here, the Indonesian fiber producer is using the homogenization expertise offered by Oerlikon Barmag Huitong Engineering (OBHE), a three way partnership between Oerlikon Barmag and Yangzhou Huitong Chemical Engineering Technique Co., Ltd.

Using the corresponding thermomechanical recycling course of, the waste materials is extruded and the bigger, extra stable parts filtered out earlier than the homogenizer swings into motion. It is on this reactor that the precise mechanical recycling and polycondensation happen. The expertise generates a excessive floor space and – along side the precisely-defined dwell time – supplies extra choices for influencing the soften. This creates a fair, homogeneous soften, whereas the expertise additionally simplifies the removing of unstable parts. In flip, this allows focused adjustment of the viscosity, which is important because the waste materials to be processed doesn’t at all times have the identical viscosity. In this manner, spinning system yarn waste – within the type of knotted balls or tangled threads, as an illustration – is processed into popcorn-shaped agglomerates for extrusion. This popcorn can have viscosity values of 0.6, but additionally decrease values of 0.4. No drawback: the homogenizer’s enhance in viscosity adjusts this.

Also working in China

After exiting the reactor, the soften is as soon as once more filtered and finer, gel-containing parts are eliminated. Subsequently, it may be additional processed as required: within the type of chips or – utilizing a direct-spinning course of – within the manufacture of filament yarns, staple fibers and nonwovens. Applicable to all purposes: the recycling outcome can solely be nearly as good because the processed beginning materials, as mechanical recycling processes are unable to enhance the beginning supplies. And chemical recycling remains to be in its infancy.

For this motive, the homogenization expertise stays engaging and is already being utilized by each Kahatex and Chinese fiber producers recycling bottle flakes and yarn waste into staple fibers and filament yarns by way of direct-spinning processes. And the extra the business focuses on recycling methods, the better the curiosity: “We are currently registering enquiries from Bangladesh, but also from China”, states Michael Mächtig, Product Manager at Oerlikon Barmag. For the aim of extra intensive international advertising and marketing, the OBHE expertise has subsequently been built-in into the Oerlikon Polymer Processing Solutions product portfolio.

Technical Details:
Homogenizer
▪ Viscosity for textile & movie = 0.64 – 0.69*[dl/g]
▪ Temperature ~ 283 [°C]
▪ Viscosity adjustment as much as 0.2 [dl/g]
Vacuum Jet System
▪ ~ 150 [Pa]
*acc. GB/T14190-2017 / 5.1.1.3.1 (phenol/tetrachloroethane=1:1)