Innovative concepts for fiber & textile recycling.
Circular Economy for PET fibres
New technologies and new test centre for recycling fibres and textiles
PET fibre materials from fibre production and subsequent processing steps – this is the focus of the new EREMA Group fibres and textiles business unit. A fibre test centre is available to accelerate development work, where an expert team is working on recycling solutions for fibre-to-fibre applications. The centre includes a variable industrial-scale recycling plant which customers can use for test runs.
With VACUREMA® and INTAREMA® technology EREMA already has an extensive range of machines for fibre and PET recycling applications. For ecologically and economically sound recycling, however, new technological solutions are needed to use the recycled fibres in higher-value end applications and to achieve a functioning circular economy.
EREMA is leading the way in PET fibre-to-fibre recycling with strong solutions. This is important for the circular economy of today. And: an important milestone for the textile recycling of tomorrow.
Wolfgang Hermann
Business Development Manager
Application Fibres & Textiles EREMA Group GmbH
PET: key material for production of synthetic fibres
The initial focus will be on PET, regarded as a key material for the production of synthetic fibres. The aim is to find recycling solutions that allow PET fibre materials to be prepared for reuse in PET fibre production processes. This is a significant step for the circular economy because PET fibres in textiles account for about two-thirds of the total volume of PET. Packaging applications account for only one-third of the PET material stream.
Removing spinning oils
Proven recycling technologies have been combined with a new IV optimiser. This extends the residence time of the PET melt, which is particularly necessary in fibre recycling to efficiently remove spinning oils. The EREMA recycling process also increases the IV value of the PET melt after extrusion back to the specific level that is essential for production of the fibre.
rPET filament fibre, carpet yarn and staple fibre
The quality of the rPET produced using this method is so high that it can be used to manufacture ultra-fine fibres up to 2 dtex with an rPET content of 100 percent. Waste PET fibre from production processes can therefore be further processed into rPET filament fibre, carpet yarn and staple fibre.
Fibre test centre with plant to test customers' materials
In order to accelerate development work, EREMA opened its own fibre test centre a few months ago, where a cross-company team is working on recycling solutions for fibre-to-fibre applications. The centre also operates a fully equipped and variable industrial-scale recycling plant. It includes the peripheral technology required for fibre materials and is available for trials using customers' material streams.
Innovative solutions for the textile industry
The textile industry is the third largest consumer of plastics.
While growth rates in the production of fibres and textiles are high, the circular economy has hardly become established in this segment. With their new fibres and textiles business unit the EREMA Group is intensifying development of recycling solutions for this application.
Currently, the focus is on PET fibre materials from fibre production and subsequent processing steps. Technologies for recycling mixed fibre textiles from textile collection sources are to follow in a follow-up project phase.
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