CONTENTS

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Name of the Topic

COMPANY PROFILE
INTRODUCTION TO PET
APPLICATIONS OF PET
CHARACTERISTICS OF PET
MANUFACTURING PROCESS
EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT

COMPANY PROFILE
Micro Polypet Pvt. Ltd. is situated in Karnal, Haryana and its co-operate office is in
New Delhi. The company was commissioned in year 2014 by Action group of
companies and RLG Chemicals. The company works on the technology of MELT TO
RESIN COMBIANTION OF MELT PHASE PROCESS UHDE INVENTA FISCHER (M-T-R
CP-UIF) by German firm.
The company is famous for manufacturing Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) resins
which are used to manufacture bottles, sheets and films. In 2014, the production
in the company was around 36,000 tonnes per annum.
In 2015, the company was overtaken and acquired by INDORAMA VENTURES PVT.
LTD. Advantages of this acquisition are the instantaneous entry into a large, fastgrowing market. Indorama ventures will become a quality and cost-effective
producer.
After acquisition, the production was increased by a great speed. Total increase in
production was about six times then what it was manufacturing in 2014. Production
capacity now increased very rapidly and current production capacity is 2,16,000
tonnes per annum.
The plant runs day and night. Total employees working for the plant are about 250.
The company gains benefits from its experienced man power pool and its location
at the heart of one of Asias largest consumer markets.

Figure 1
LOGO OF THE INDUSTRY

Figure 2

Figure 3

INTRODUCTION TO PET
Polyethylene terephthalate is commonly abbreviated as PET. It is the most
common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used
in fibers for clothing, containers for liquids and foods, thermoforming for
manufacturing, and in combination with glass fiber for engineering resins.
PET consists of polymerized units of the monomer ethylene terephthalate, with
repeating (C10H8O4) units Depending on its processing and thermal history,
polyethylene terephthalate may exist both as an amorphous (transparent) and as
a semi-crystalline polymer. The semi crystalline material might appear transparent
(particle size < 500 nm) or opaque and white (particle size up to a few micrometers)
depending on its crystal structure and particle size.
The monomer bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate can be synthesized by
the esterification reaction between terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol with
water as a byproduct, or by transesterification reaction between ethylene
glycol and dimethyl terephthalate with methanol as a byproduct. Polymerization is
through a poly condensation reaction of the monomers (done immediately after
esterification/transesterification) with water as the byproduct.

Figure 4
PET STRUCTURE

Properties:
PET in its natural state is a colorless, semi-crystalline resin. Based on how it is
processed, PET can be semi-rigid to rigid, and it is very lightweight. It makes a good
gas and fair moisture barrier, as well as a good barrier to alcohol (requires
additional "barrier" treatment) and solvents. It is strong and impact-resistant. PET
becomes white when exposed to chloroform and also certain other chemicals such
as toluene.
When allowed to cool slowly, the molten polymer forms a more crystalline
material. This material has spherulites containing many small crystallites when
crystallized from an amorphous solid, rather than forming one large single crystal.
Light tends to scatter as it crosses the boundaries between crystallites and the
amorphous regions between them. This scattering means that crystalline PET is
opaque and white in most cases. Fiber drawing is among the few industrial
processes that produce a nearly single-crystal product.

Figure 5
PET RESINS

Viscosity:
One of the most important characteristics of PET is referred to as viscosity.
The intrinsic viscosity of the material, found by extrapolating to zero concentration
of relative viscosity to concentration which is measured in deciliters per gram
(d/g). Intrinsic viscosity is dependent upon the length of its polymer chains but
has no units due to being extrapolated to zero concentration. The longer the
polymer chains the more entanglements between chains and therefore the higher
the viscosity. The average chain length of a particular batch of resin can be
controlled during poly condensation.
The intrinsic viscosity range of PET:
1. Fiber grade:
0.400.70 Textile
0.720.98 Technical, tire cord
2. Film grade:
0.600.70 BoPET (biaxially oriented PET film)
0.701.00 Sheet grade for thermoforming
3. Bottle grade:
0.700.78 Water bottles (flat)
0.780.85 Carbonated soft drink grade
4. Monofilament, engineering plastic:
1.002.00

DRYING:
PET is hygroscopic, meaning that it absorbs water from its surroundings. However,
when this "damp" PET is then heated, the water hydrolyzes the PET, decreasing its
resilience. Thus, before the resin can be processed in a molding machine, it must
be dried. Drying is achieved through the use of a desiccant or dryers before the PET
is fed into the processing equipment.
Inside the dryer, hot dry air is pumped into the bottom of the hopper containing
the resin so that it flows up through the pellets, removing moisture on its way. The
hot wet air leaves the top of the hopper and is first run through an after-cooler,
because it is easier to remove moisture from cold air than hot air. The resulting cool
wet air is then passed through a desiccant bed. Finally, the cool dry air leaving the
desiccant bed is re-heated in a process heater and sent back through the same
processes in a closed loop. Typically, residual moisture levels in the resin must be
less than 50 parts per million (parts of water per million parts of resin, by weight)
before processing. Dryer residence time should not be shorter than about four
hours. This is because drying the material in less than 4 hours would require a
temperature above 160 C, at which level hydrolysis would begin inside the pellets
before they could be dried out.
PET can also be dried in compressed air resin dryers. Compressed air dryers do not
reuse drying air. Dry, heated compressed air is circulated through the PET pellets
as in the desiccant dryer, then released to the atmosphere.

PET MANUFACTURING:
Polyethylene terephthalate is produced from ethylene glycol and dimethyl
terephthalate (C6H4(CO2CH3)2) or terephthalic acid. The process is done by the
esterification reaction.
In the terephthalic acid process, esterification of ethylene glycol and terephthalic
acid is conducted directly at moderate pressure (2.75.5 bar) and high temperature
(220260 C). Water is eliminated in the reaction, and it is also continuously
removed by distillation:
n C6H4(CO2H)2 + n HOCH2CH2OH [(CO)C6H4(CO2CH2CH2O)]n + 2n H2O

APPLICATIONS OF PET
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is a commonly used plastic in a packaging
industry. Common Polyethylene Terephthalate products include:
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Take-out containers
Baked goods containers
Bottled water
Ketchup
Jars (Peanut butter and Mayonnaise)
Juices and carbonated drinks
Frozen foods
Cosmetics
Household products

PET offers attractive benefits for brand owners and customers, such as:
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Promoting transparency to display the product

Protecting the product with innovative barrier properties
Encouraging creative package design
Reducing transportation cost and greenhouse gas emissions
Providing a long shelf life

Figure 6
PET BOTTLES

CHARACTERISTICS OF PET

Following are the characteristics of Polyethylene Terephthalic resins:

1. High clarity
2. Good chemical resistance
3. High impact resistance
4. Medium rigidity (semi-rigid to rigid)
5. Medium scratch resistance
6. Food contact safety
7. Temperature tolerance of -45 C to 45 C

MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Figure 7
PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM FOR MANUFACTURING OF PET
The 2-Reactor + MTR technology offered by UIF Polycondensation Technologies
has successfully overcome these disadvantages by offering an intelligent, low heatstress system comprising a single-step esterification and pre-polycondensation
reactor, the ESPREE, which features high-intensity reactions, and a proficient
DISCAGE high-intrinsic-viscosity reactor for producing a high-viscosity melt with
an unusually low acetaldehyde (AA) content. The direct contact spray apparatus for
condensing the reaction vapors has no mechanical moving parts, which increases
its reliability and reduces maintenance costs. The spherical PET resin pellets are
created by an underwater die face system in which they are not amorphously
frozen as in conventional methods, but are kept above their glass transition
temperature for a period of several hours without any additional external heat

input. This results in a significant energy saving! Furthermore, it avoids the sticky
phase for which PET is renowned during transition from the amorphous to semicrystalline structure and removes the aldehydes, water and other low boilers from
the pellets in a minimized cold, dry air stream. With this treatment, the resin is
subject to a low degree of crystallization. The highly effective 2-Reactor (2R)
polymerization system is itself has proven beneficial when used for textile,
technical (chips or direct spinning) and film-grade polyesters as well as polyester
co-polymers.

PRODUCT QUALITY:
Table 1
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Name of Property
Intrinsic Viscosity
Melting Point
Acetaldehyde Content
Pellet Shape
Pellet Size
Crystallinity
Color

Value of Property
0.65-0.85 dl/g
248-252 C
1.0 ppm
Spherical
12-17 mg
Less than 45%
B* value=+1.0

COST BENEFITS OF USING M-T-R TECHNOLOGY:

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Save equipment cost, erection cost and building cost

Less labor cost
Save raw material
Save nitrogen and electric energy for blowers
Save heating energy

EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT (ETP)

Figure 5
FLOW CHART FOR OPERATIONS INVOLVED IN EFFLUENT TREATMENT
PLANT

Following is the short description of the sequence of operations involved in effluent

treatment plant:
1. PRIMARY TREATMENT:
It is the first stage of effluent treatment plant, where effluent comes. Here, primary
filtration is performed to remove solid waste particles.
2. COOLING AND MIXING:
In this stage, different types of effluent are mixed and cool down by the help of
motor which run a fan.
3. NEUTRALIZATION TANK:
After cooling and mixing, effluent is transferred to neutralization tank by the help
of pump. Here, acid or alkali is mixed to neutralize the effluent. A pH meter is placed
in the neutralization tank.
4. CO-AGULANT BATH:
After neutralization of effluent; effluent is transferred to a co-agulant bath. Here,
coagulant is added with the effluent.
5. SETTLING TANK:
Here, effluent separates from the water and it is found in the lower level of the
tank. Effluent is like a sludge.
6. PRESSURE FILTER:
Here, filtration is done under pressure. A certain amount of pressure is created
here.