The plant engineering and construction company Uhde Inventa-Fischer is to build a PET plant for its Indian customer JBF Industries Ltd., a leading producer of polyester granules. The plant with a total name plate capacity of 432,000 tonnes a year will be located in Geel, Belgium, and will produce high-quality PET for bottling and packaging applications. Feedstock terephthalic acid will be produced by BP Chembel N.V. on the same site and supplied.
Based on Uhde Inventa-Fischer's state-of-the-art, energy-efficient, patented Melt-To-Resin (MTR®) technology, the plant will enable JBF Industries Ltd. to produce top-quality PET pellets that are established in the market. Integration of a 54,000 tonne-per-year Flakes-To-Resin (FTR®) recycling line will also allow 25% of the PTA required for the production of PET to be replaced with recycling material. One of the outstanding features of the FTR® process is that it is FDA-approved, which certifies that the quality of the PET pellets produced is adequate for food applications.
Uhde Inventa-Fischer’s scope of supplies includes the know-how licence for the MTR®- and FTR® technologies, the basic- and detail engineering, supply of all plant components and supervision of the construction and commissioning activities. The operating personnel will also be trained by Uhde Inventa-Fischer’s experienced specialists. The detail engineering for the project will be carried out by Uhde Inventa-Fischer and Uhde India Private Ltd., thus bearing testimony to international cooperation within the ThyssenKrupp Uhde group network.
The MTR® process replaces the cost-intensive solid-state post condensation (SSP) process, thus achieving much lower operating and maintenance costs and a significantly reduced CO2 balance with fewer investment costs. Feedstock consumption is also considerably reduced without affecting the high product quality. The MTRÒ process is based on the 2-reactor high-viscosity technology developed by Uhde Inventa-Fischer and uses the patented ESPREEÒ and DISCAGEÒ reactors to ensure production of the required high melt viscosity on a sustained basis.
Photo Uhde Inventa Fischer: 3D model of an MTR® plant JBF Industries Ltd at Geel, Belgium ThyssenKrupp AG.
