AMUT Friction Washer
AMUT has installed a PET wash plant at the largest bottle-to-bottle recycling facility in Latin America.
Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico, along with the Board of Directors of Petstar and Coca-Cola Management participated in the opening ceremony for the plant held at Petstar premises at Toluca, Mexico in July. The PET wash plant was demonstrated to the numerous guests at the event, including top-level managers in the PET recycling industry.
This plant represents a great success for AMUT, as it is the second system the company has supplied to Petstar, which aims to double its existing capacity and grow its reputation as a leading recycler. This line completes Phase 2 of Petstar, owned by Coca-Cola and other Mexican investors, that today represents the largest Bottle-to-Bottle recycling plant in Latin America with an hourly net capacity of over 6.000 kg/h, handling 1.5 billion PET bottles annually.
The AMUT PET bottles recycling system is designed to convert post-consumer PET bottles into flakes suitable to be processed by a Solid-State Polycondensation system. The flakes produced have a top purity quality and are suitable for bottle-to-bottle application.
The plant has driven a change in Mexico's waste management sector by converting the post-consumer bottles into usable and valuable manufacturing input. The non-biodegradable nature of PET bottles has caused excessive waste disposal problems throughout Mexico but now they are granted a second life. Moreover, the consumption of virgin PET involved in bottle production is consequently reduced.
The AMUT plant includes bottle pre-washing, detection, grinding, washing, drying and final flakes detection in one system. AMUT patented washing systems grant the complete removal of impurities with a substantial saving of water and chemicals.
The patented Friction Washer, connected with a water-flow recirculation and filtering system, removes any type of polluting material from the PET flakes. The AMUT system is continuous process, not based on batches, where washing process, water temperature, friction level and resident time are automatically controlled and monitored.
The supplying of this plant is part of a social responsibility programme to eradicate child labour: a reimbursement is provided to those families who collect waste bottles giving them the possibility to send children to school.
