Análise do processo de pós condensação da resina de PET Pós Consumo Reciclada

Abstract

As all other plastics, the PET, polyethylene terephthalate, has petroleum as raw material, a non-renewable natural resource. As it is produced from a finite source, the recycling of the PET, material used to many different applications, like to make bottles for cosmetics, food, pharmaceutical and cleaning products, as well as to produce textile fibers and broom bristles, becomes essential. In Brazil, the importance of PET recycling, especially as bottles, is increasing. In 2019, it was estimated that 55% of PET packages discarded by Brazilian people had been recycled, a volume that corresponds to 311 million tons. Together with the strengthening of PET recycling, it is happening the strengthening of 716 industries of PET recycling in Brazil and of their productive processes. The present study is a bibliographic review of the PET recuperation process, known as “bottle-to-bottle”, that has an additional phase when compared with the traditional recycling process. It includes, in addition to the steps of separation, washing, milling and extrusion, a step of post condensation that happens in a batch reactor. This work also has a study about a real case of a Brazilian industry, with an especial attention to the optimization of the process of post condensation of PET PCR resines (PET post consumer recycled) that intends to identify bottlenecks, suggest possible changes and improvements to this phase of production process. The study identified some operational problems related with one equipment present in the post condensation process, the heat exchange. So, some alternatives to solve these issues and improve the equipment capacity are proposed to be done.