Extrusion Asia Edition 2-2024

Odor-improved recycled pellets The recoSTAR dynamic 165 C-VAC recycling line installed at Am- biente features Starlinger’s renowned odor reduction technology and processes detergent bottles made of HDPE and washed post-consumer agricultural LDPE films. “Agricultural films are used for various applications – for example in greenhouses, as crop covering, or for silage. This results in organic residues being present even after washing which create gases in the subse- quent recycling process,” explained Paul Niedl, Commercial Head of Starlinger recycling technology. “In case of packaging applications such as detergent bottles the smells of their con- tents migrate into the packaging material during their shelf life and usage time. Our odor reduction technology is designed to permanently remove such odors so that the produced regranu- late is suitable for high-level applications. Instead of downcycling it can be reused in the same application, which creates circula- rity.” To accommodate a wide range of input materials, the entire re- cycling process can be individually adapted according to the con- tamination and odor intensity of the input material and the desired specifications of the produced regranulate. The process starts with cutting and homogenizing the input material in the SMART feeder where the material is also heated until it reaches the ideal operating point. Highly volatile odors are extracted al- ready during this process step. After the main extruder the melt passes through continuous melt filters where solid contaminants are removed so that they cannot release odors during the follo- wing process steps. In the subsequent C-VAC module the melt surface is increased by 300 %, achieving extremely high degas- sing efficiency. This ensures that even deeply embedded odors are permanently extracted. In the final step, the produced recy- cled pellets are treated in the pellet conditioning unit (PCU) at the end of the recycling process to extract the most persistent odors. This ensures permanently odor-improved regranulate that can be used for manufacturing a wide range of plastic products. A Portuguese recycling pioneer The roots of Ambiente S.A. reach back to 1953 when its mo- ther company, the Portuguese plastic film production company Fabrica Leiriense de Plasticos, was already recycling internal pro- duction waste. From the early 1970’s on Fabrica Leiriense de Pla- sticos also processed externally collected plastic waste, including imported materials from other European countries such as Ger- many, and became Portugal’s recycling pioneer for domestic pla- stic waste in the 1990’s. The company management’s awareness that plastics recycling constitutes a fundamental prerequisite for a sustainable future led to the foundation of Ambiente S.A. in 1989. Since 2000 it is registered as an independent company, currently employing 36 people and recycling 7000 tons of post- consumer, industrial and domestic waste per year. The produ- ced recycled LDPE and HDPE pellets are suitable for extrusion, blow molding and injection molding applications and are sup- plied to customers in Europe and Northern Africa. ➠ Starlinger recycling technology Furtherstr. 47a, 2564 Weissenbach, Österreich www.recycling.starlinger.com ➠ Ambiente S.A. www.ambiente-sa.com 由Ambiente生产的高质量经过气味处理的HDPE和LDPE再生颗粒 产品有着广泛的用途 The high-quality odor-treated HDPE and LDPE regranulate produced by Ambiente is suitable for a wide range of applications 38 循环利用——案例研究 Extrusion Asia Edition 2/2024 www.smart-extrusion.com