Extrusion International 3-2023-USA

46 Extrusion International 3/2023 RECYCLING – CASE STUDY Recycling of LDPE / LLDPE Film – Guaranteed Quality Through Fine Filtration The transformation to a circular economy is being driven by the European Commission´s „Europe 2020“ strategy for growth. The increase in recycling targets is encouraging European wide industrial symbioses which have set themselves the target of operating holistically and with more efficient use of resources. O ne of these companies is the Spanish company, Llorens GMR in Barcelona. Llorens offers its cus- tomer an extensive service, from collection, prepara- tion to the reuse of industrial waste. Llorens has sev- eral modern reprocessing and recycling lines. Llorens has a relatively new extrusion line for re- processing post-industrial waste film from LDPE and LLDPE, however the filtration fineness which could be achieved with the original equipment Melt Filtration was unable to remove the critical contaminants from the polymer. Llorens decided to add an RSFgenius Melt Filtration System from Gneuss as a fine filter in order to remove contaminants down to 56 to 100 µm. The Gneuss RSFgenius achieves this at a constant melt pressure, thereby ensuring that gels and black specks are reliably removed. As a result, Llorens is able to use the material produced on this line for high value cast and blown film applications. Llorens´ customers can both fulfil the legal requirement for recycling content and manufacture high quality film. The unique Gneuss Rotary Melt Filtration Systems can handle high melt pressures and heavily contami- nated materials with highly variable contamination loads. At the same time, they operate process con- stant and with a high level of automation. Exchange of the filter elements takes place under normal production conditions, without disturbances in the process. Thanks to the highly efficient, automatic, segmental high pressure self-cleaning system, the RSFgenius Melt Filtration Systems from Gneuss offer long intervals between filter element changes with a minimum of back flushing material. In recent years, throughout Europe (and world- wide) a large number of LDPE / LLDPE recycling ex- trusion lines have been retrofitted with Gneuss Melt Filtration Systems for fine filtration. Gneuss is spe- cialised in individually retrofitting their equipment to existing extrusion lines and can offer complete retrofit packages consisting of a filtration system, melt pump, if necessary, and integrated control sys- tem to maintain the ease of operation of the overall systems. Gneuß Kunststofftechnik GmbH Mönichhusen 42, 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany www.gneuss.com RSFgenius Filtration System 330 for LDPE/LLDPE Film Recycling