The present invention relates to a process for forming cellulose fibers or film from dissolved cellulose. The process comprises the steps of: dissolving cellulose in an aqueous coagulation sodium salt solution to provide a cellulose spin dope; extruding the cellulose spin dope into a coagulation bath liquid comprising an aqueous coagulation sodium salt solution to provide cellulose fibers or film; withdrawing a portion of the coagulation bath comprising coagulation sodium salt and sodium hydroxide (NaOH); cooling the withdrawn portion of the coagulation bath to precipitate solid coagulation sodium salt to recover sodium hydroxide (NaOH) substantially free from the coagulation salt; and using at least a portion of the recovered sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in dissolving the cellulose to provide the cellulose spin dope.

Methods of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprise: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) adding one or more color concentrates to the flakes; (E) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder (400) while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion (420) of the MRS extruder (400) below about 25 millibars; (F) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter (450) having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (G) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

A process for the production of polymers from waste plastics feedstocks includes: providing a hydrocarbon stream A obtained by treatment of a waste plastics feedstock; optionally providing a hydrocarbon stream B; supplying a feed C comprising a fraction of the hydrocarbon stream A and a fraction of the hydrocarbon stream B to a thermal cracker furnace comprising cracking coil(s); performing a thermal cracking operation in the presence of steam to obtain a cracked hydrocarbon stream D; supplying the cracked hydrocarbon stream D to a separation unit; performing a separation operation in the separation unit to obtain a product stream E comprising a monomer; supplying the product stream E to a polymerisation reactor; and performing a polymerisation reaction to obtain an polymer. The process allows for optimisation of the quantity of waste plastic material that finds its way back into a polymer that is produced as outcome of the process.

The invention relates to a method and a processing plant (1) for plastic material, for the recycling thereof. To this end, the processing plant (1) comprises a feed device (4), a processing unit (2) having a comminuting device (5) and a conveying device (6) adjoining the comminuting device (5), and an extrusion device (3) having an extruder screw (21). During its conveying movement along a first conveying section (9) toward a transfer region (8) by means of the conveying device (6), the comminuted plastic material is heated to a transfer temperature with a mean temperature value, which falls into the range of the softening temperature of the plastic material. In the transfer region (8), the comminuted plastic material is transferred to the extrusion device (3).

A production line for manufacturing extruded plates, comprises a conveyor for conveying a semifinished product, an edge cutting device for cutting off an edge area of the semifinished product to present a plate-shaped endless base profile, and a separating device for separating individual plates from the endless base profile. A distance (D) between the separating device and the edge cutting device in the conveying direction is dimensioned such that, between an average temperature T.sub.1 of the semifinished product during cutting of the edge area in the edge cutting device and an average temperature T.sub.2 of the endless base profile during separation, there is a temperature difference T.sub.1−T.sub.2 of 2 K≤T.sub.1−T.sub.2≤15 K. Due to distance (D) within an optimum temperature range, further processing of the cut off edge areas is essentially neutral in terms of installation space.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of polymers from waste plastics feedstocks comprising the steps in this order of: (a) providing a hydrocarbon stream A obtained by treatment of a waste plastics feedstock; (b) optionally providing a hydrocarbon stream B; (c) supplying a feed C comprising a fraction of the hydrocarbon stream A and a fraction of the hydrocarbon stream B to a thermal cracker furnace comprising cracking coil(s); (d) performing a thermal cracking operation in the presence of steam to obtain a cracked hydrocarbon stream D; (e) supplying the cracked hydrocarbon stream D to a separation unit; (f) performing a separation operation in the separation unit to obtain a product stream E comprising a monomer; (g) supplying the product stream E to a polymerisation reactor; and (h) performing a polymerisation reaction in the polymerisation reactor to obtain an polymer. The process of the present invention allows for optimisation of the quantity of waste plastic material that finds its way back into a polymer that is produced as outcome of the process.

A system comprising: (1) a grinding unit configured to receive and grind recycled PET bottles into a group of polymer flakes comprising up to about ten percent colored polymer flakes and balance substantially clear polymer flakes; (2) a washing unit configured to wash the group of polymer flakes; and (3) an extruder configured to extrude material in a plurality of different extrusion streams. The extruder may be further configured to: (1) receive a concentrate-polymer mixture comprising a mixture of the polymer flakes and a color concentrate; (2) melt the concentrate-polymer mixture to produce a polymer melt; (3) reduce a pressure within the extruder; and (4) pass the polymer melt through the extruder so that the polymer melt is divided into the plurality of extrusion streams. The system may then filter the polymer melt through at least one filter and form the polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.

The invention provides a apparatus for reworking of non-vulcanised rubber or de-vulcanized rubber from a rubber component, preferably a rubber tire, to produce recycled rubber. The apparatus comprises a gear pump configured to receive and filter the rubber to produce filtered rubber and a mixer-extruder configured to homogenize and extrude the filtered rubber to produce recycled rubber.

A production line for manufacturing extruded plates, comprises a conveyor for conveying a semifinished product, an edge cutting device for cutting off an edge area of the semifinished product to present a plate-shaped endless base profile, and a separating device for separating individual plates from the endless base profile. A distance (D) between the separating device and the edge cutting device in the conveying direction is dimensioned such that, between an average temperature T.sub.1 of the semifinished product during cutting of the edge area in the edge cutting device and an average temperature T.sub.2 of the endless base profile during separation, there is a temperature difference T.sub.1−T.sub.2 of 2 K≤T.sub.1−T.sub.2≤15 K. Due to distance (D) within an optimum temperature range, further processing of the cut off edge areas is essentially neutral in terms of installation space.

An extrusion device that produces plastic film includes at least two feed units that feed feedstock for an extruder, wherein, in each feed unit an automatic cleaning device is arranged for a removal of feedstock from the feed unit when changing material in the extrusion device.