PET bottle washing line

Modular Washing Lines for Post-Consume Polyester (PET)Bottles

Preparation of PET bottles	Debaling: A screw shredder or a debaling drum breaks down the pressed bales into single bottles.
	Label remover:   Bottle cuttings are separated from film and paper labels in the air stream.
	Prewashing of bottles: With the help of middle speed screen drums, coarse contamination is partly removed
	Manual and metal separation: Manually separate the foreign materials With a magnet or a detector most foreign metal bodies are separated.
Size Reduction	Wet grinding: A wet granulator size-reduces the bottles while the wash water removes paper and foreign body contamination from the flakes.
	Separation of dirty water: The wash water from the granulator is separated from the PET flakes.
	Separation in water
	Density separation step: In the water bath or with a hydro cyclone a light fraction (mostly polyolefin) is separated from the heavy fraction (mostly polyesters).
Hot washing step	Material storage basin / preheating: The flakes are heated to the temperature of the hot washing step.
	Intensive washing and dispersion: The flakes are thoroughly washed in hot water, soda and detergents; glues, ink and oil are dissolved.
	Separation according to density: In a poaching tank, remaining polyolefin and floating glues are separated from the polyester.
	Separation of the suds: The hot wash water with the detergents in it is separated from the flakes.
	Treatment of the suds: The hot wash water is enriched with lye and detergents.
	Clean rinsing: The clean flakes are rinsed in water in order to obtain a neutral pH value.
	Intensive washer and spraying washer: As an compliment to separation tank to remove the suds from  the flakes
Retreatment of flakes	Mechanical dewatering: The flakes are dewatered with a centrifuge
	Thermal dryer:   The flakes are dried to the required residual moisture with a thermal heater
	Cyclone silo: Separate the remaining light foreign materials with blower and store the crystallized flakes
	Bag system: Store the flakes in bags for reuse
Water Treatment	Water collection, screening: The dirty water is collected in a pit and any contamination larger than appr. 0.1 mm is removed.
	Sedimentation: The screened water is stored in a sedimentation basin for the sedimentation of light contamination; the result is circulation water.
	Storage: The mechanically treated circulation water is stored.
	Treatment of fines: In a chemical or physical water treatment plant
	Reconveying into the plant: A pump conveys the circulation water back into the plant.
These functional units represent possible procedure steps when PET bottles are recycled
They are selected according to the frame parameters of the feed material and the desired final product when such a plant is designed.
The single functional units are combined with conveying systems (belt conveyors, conveying screws, elevators, blowers, pumps) appropriate to the specific nature of the product and in relation to their location. Type and volume of the necessary conveying systems are determined in respect to the project.

PET bottle washing line