Martogg Group of Companies is leading the way in building local recycling capacity with EREMA VACUREMA PET technology.
Martogg Group of Companies is Australia’s largest privately-owned polymer distribution, resin compounding and plastics recycling company.
Manufacturing polymer compounds for the Australian plastics industry since 1975, Martogg LCM invested as early as 2006 in local plastics reprocessing and since 2015 specifically in PET materials.
Martogg Group’s recycled polymer division Martogg LCM® takes a cradle-to-cradle approach to the life cycle management of plastic products and is leading the way in investing in onshore re-processing.
Using Martogg’s extensive knowledge of the plastics industry and polymer technology, along with the company’s compounding expertise, Martogg LCM® formulates and recycles end-product plastic waste into value added, quality polymers to be used in the manufacture of new plastic products.
Martogg LCM’s RECYCLENE® range of commodity recycled polymers includes PP, LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE, ABS, HIPS, and GPPS products that are suitable for a wide variety of industrial and durable end use applications.
In 2015, Martogg commissioned their first VACUREMA® ADVANCED decontamination and recycling line, and after successful implementation and market development of the PET resin branded marPET®, invested in the second line in 2019.
It is now commissioning the third and largest VACUREMA® ADVANCED, which will be operational in late 2020 with a collective production capacity of 23,000 tonnes of food grade rPET.
The VACUREMA® bottle-to-bottle technology from the Austrian recycling machine manufacturer EREMA®, combines several advantages and functions in one.
“The unique SafeFlake technology in the vacuum reactor, in particular the flake decontamination, drying and IV treatment prior to extrusion, enables immediate drying, fast migration of contaminants out of the polymer and flexible IV management at lowest energy costs,” Ben McCulloch, Martogg marPET® Product Manager says.
By pre-treating the PET flakes in a vacuum at the correct temperature, moisture and migratory substances are removed effectively as part of the process before extrusion.
McCulloch explains that this prevents any hydrolytic and oxidative decomposition of the melt in the extruder.
“This is a clear advantage in terms of melt quality, and therefore the basis for a stable, highly clean and food-compliant end-product with the best colour results,” he adds.
The simple operation and effective blending in the reactor, as well as the high degree of automation, allows production of consistent quality PET resin for direct food contact and IV values on par with virgin materials, even if the input material parameters change.
“Therefore, the technology is ideal for processing in Australia and being able to deal with local challenges,” McCulloch says.
Electricity accounts for around one third of the costs of bottle-to-bottle recycling. Technologies that use energy economically therefore have a clear advantage.
The VACUREMA® sets the standard with the VACUREMA® Prime’s energy demand as low as 0.30 kilowatt-hours per kilogram specific total energy consumption.
For the VACUNITE®, demand is only 0.35 kilowatt-hours per kilogram consumption for the complete process – from flake to finished rPET pellets, including solid state processing.
The VACUREMA® range covers all applications of PET processing, from inline extrusion to thermoforming sheet, to high end bottle-to-bottle applications and capacities over 3000 kilograms per hour.
With the latest addition of the VACUNITE® to the VACUREMA® range, EREMA now offers the unique combination of two technologies: the well proven and tested VACUREMA® technology, together with newly patented vacuum-assisted V-LeaN Solid State Polycondensation (SSP), which Polymetrix developed for EREMA especially for this demanding application.
VACUNITE® offers further enhancement of IV and colour management at lowest energy demand, where all thermal process steps take place in a nitrogen and/or vacuum atmosphere.
After testing the first VACUREMA® line and finding it to suit their requirements, Martogg showed industry leadership and committed further investment in local re-processing, closing the gap for onshore processing.
Now coinciding with the renewed recycling content targets released by APCO, Martogg’s PET resin marPET® has an annual capacity of 23,000 tonnes, which is being offered to Australian based packaging companies seeking a range of high-quality rPET resins to meet the local recycling content targets.
“The Erema technology has been instrumental in allowing the Martogg Group to produce and offer business and brands with the highest quality rPET for use into a diverse range of packaging applications,” McCulloch says.
EREMA is represented in Australia by CEMAC technologies.
“We are proud to be able to offer these advanced technologies to the Australian markets and to be able to assist in building local infrastructure in materials re-processing towards a circular economy,” CEMAC Managing Director Eric Paulsen says.
“We applaud the initiative and dedication that Martogg is showing in this emerging market and are very grateful for being able to assist in the process.”
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