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My closing statement read: "There is only one real effective and incentive method to encourage environmentally sound collecting of beverage one-way containers and it is deposit in combination with High-Tech R&D resulted Reverse Vending Machines!"

VACUREMA PRIME technology in the USA

A North American EREMA customer based in Michigan has been using the first large-size VACUREMA PRIME 2018 T-VS in full-scale production service for recycling post-consumer PET flake since the early summer of 2008.

In compliance with the specification, EREMA had designed the system for a throughput of 1,200 to 1,800 kg/h. Upon award of the order, it was further stipulated in the same specification that the equipment should provide repellets with an intrinsic viscosity (IV) gain over the input material (100% bottle flake) of at least 6% at a throughput of 1,350 kg/h.

During almost one year of practical operation it has emerged that the system – designed to process pre-washed PET flake into high-grade, ultra fine-filtered rPET pellets certifiably suitable for direct food contact – clearly exceeds all performance data warranted by EREMA.

The specified 6% IV increase, for instance, proved to be reliably achievable even at a throughput of 1,700 kg/h (3,740 lbs/h). From an input material with an IV of 0.79 dl/g, the VACUREMA PRIME 2018 T-VS delivers rPET with IV values of up to 0.86 dl/g at the customer’s site, depending on the throughput setting. This represents an IV gain of up to nearly 9% (!) in the processed material in everyday practice.

Based on this experience, a first VACUREMA PRIME 2021 T-VS of even larger design was commissioned a few months later at
a site in North Carolina/USA. This system is rated for a production output of 1,700 to 2,500 kg/h (3,800 - 5,500 lbs/h). The first practical operating measurements have shown that this VACUREMA PRIME raises the 0.78 dl/g intrinsic viscosity level of the input material to as much as 0.81 dl/g (+ 6.57%) in the rPET at a preset throughput of 1,900 kg/h (4,200 lbs/h). At a throughput setting of 1,600 kg/h (3,500 lbs/h), an IV increase to as much as 0.85 is attained. Moreover, the system easily reached its rated maximum output of 2,500 kg/h.