Partners take recycled PET flake to food-grade preforms

Düsseldorf, Germany — Italian stretch blowing molding machine maker Sipa SpA partnered with Austrian recycling machine maker Erema Group GmbH to develop a way to use 100 percent recycled PET flake to produce preforms approved for food contact.

Called Xtreme Renew, the system allows preforms for PET bottles to be made entirely from post-consumer waste in a single heat cycle, which officials of Vittorio Veneto-based Sipa say is better for the environment and business.

Xtreme Renew combines Ansfelden-based Erema's patented Vacurema technology with Sipa's Xtreme technology for bottle-to-bottle recycling that uses less energy, creates less carbon dioxide and costs less to run compared to alternative systems, according to the two companies.

With Xtreme Renew, Sipa's compliance with the principles of the circular economy and commitment to the environment continues to be measurable, according to Anna Horecica-Csiki, product manager for Xtreme Renew.

"Sipa has always focused on a more reasoned consumption of PET, enabling its customers to produce lighter-weight containers, removing material where it is not necessary," Horecica-Csiki said at K 2019 in Düsseldorf.

Now the company is devoting more attention to reduce the carbon footprint of packaging, she said. Sipa collaborated with Erema to turn washed PET flake into food-grade PET with virginlike qualities for bottled water, juices, milk and ready-to-drink tea.

"Xtreme Renew lets you produce food-contact approved preforms made from up to 100 percent recycled PET flakes in a single energy cycle. That's an exciting innovation from the minds of Sipa and Erema," Horecica-Csiki said.

The use of recycled material instead of virgin PET to produce bottles in traditional processes generally lowers carbon dioxide emissions, according to the product manager. She said Xtreme Renew improves on that.

"With the new highly innovative process, emissions are cut by an additional 20 percent, and 30 percent less electricity is consumed thanks to the integration of the various phases into a single system," Horecica-Csiki said. "Moreover, Xtreme Renew can produce preforms that are up to 10 percent lighter, reduce logistics and transportation costs by 20 percent, and total cost of ownership by 15 percent."

Erema's patented Vacurema technology prepares washed PET bottle flakes for processing. The system consists of a vacuum reactor connected to a single-screw extruder. The vacuum reactor has three zones for decontaminating and drying the PET material.

The prepared material then can then be fed directly to a Sipa Xtreme rotary injection-compression preform molding system. Sipa says this is the only molding system on the market that doesn't have to start from pelletized recycled material.

Processing recycled PET directly from the Vacurema system in flake form eliminates the need to convert the material into granules that would then have to be cooled and reheated, which takes energy.

Considered groundbreaking technology by the Vienna-based World Packaging Organization, Xtreme Renew received a World Star Packaging Award from the nonprofit group that encourages packaging science and engineering.

The first facility equipped with Xtreme Renew went into operation in Japan at the end of 2018. Sipa and Erema worked with the Japanese recycling company Kyoei Industry and beverage producer Suntory Holdings Ltd. on the installation in Kasama. The system can produce 300 million containers a year.

Suntory fills more than 2.5 billion bottles annually for customers such as Schweppes and PepsiCo. The business is looking into tripling production capacity to almost a billion bottles a year made from recycled PET, according to Gianfranco Zoppas, president of Sipa's parent company, Zoppas Industries.

"This is a solution that represents the perfect response to the requirements of the new cicrcular economy," Zoppas said in a news release. "Waste reprocessing is rendered sustainable and economical while producing new products of the highest quality."

Sipa also developed a new hot-fill option for single-stage injection-stretch-blow molding (ISBM) machines that the company says offers a lower-cost option for aseptic filling and a longer shelf life for food.

The option can be supplied on new machines or retrofitted on older ones in the company's ECS SP line of ISBM machines.

The innovation also solves a label challenge, according to the company. Sipa says the containers are resistant to filling temperatures of 85° C and vacuum forces that occur as they cool down. The latter feature is important because it solves the problem of bottles deforming from vacuum forces, which can cause labels to crinkle or peel off completely.

In addition, if oxygen-scavenger barriers are used in PET, Sipa says it's possible to achieve a 12-month shelf life for ketchup without the use of preservatives, which leads to a healthier product.

The hot-fill capability can be retrofitted to existing ECS SP machines with a kit that includes dedicated stretching rods, air valves, piping, an electrical heating system and a software upgrade.

Sipa is also out with the next generation of its preform injection molding technology. Called XFORM GEN4 XP, the updated version can run molds up to 180 cavities while reducing cycle times, energy use and maintenance, according to the company.

The technology also gives operators a 21.5-inch touchscreen with high-definition graphics, swipe functions like a smartphone and a multifunction control knob for one-handed operation.

The innovation allows for fast response times, has an advanced automatic process setup and an in-depth part quality troubleshooting tutorial. Sipa says the technology improves machine uptime, lowers scrap rates and depends less on highly skilled machine operators.

Sipa SpA

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Xtreme Renew combines Ansfelden-based Erema's patented Vacumrema technology with Sipa's Xtreme technology for bottle-to-bottle recycling that uses less energy, creates less carbon dioxide and costs less to run compared to alternative systems, according to the two companies.