AQUAFIL Engineering is one of the world leaders in technology, equipment design and construction for polyester and polyamide plants based on own patented technology and production know-how which provide customers with the newest technology combined with high quality, flexibility, efficiency and sustainability.
The AQUAFIL 2-Reactor Polyester Technology with the unique and patented AQUAFIL UPR reactor is already used in several production plants and has become the most reliable 2-reactor technology in the market. With the AQUAFIL design it is possible to set up units with high flexibility, reasonable price and up to 600 t/d in one line. The polymer of the AQUAFIL 2-Reactor polyester plants is used for different applications like filaments (with direct spinning), film (with direct casting = DFC or chips production), tire cord or bottles.
The newest innovation of AQUAFIL Engineering is the Low Building Technology (LBT). The technology was originally developed by AQUAFIL Engineering to avoid high building structures in earthquake-prone areas. Positive side effect of this development was the enormous reduction in building size. With the LBT it is the first time that an all-year building construction will be possible at shortest erection time. The AQUAFIL technology thus offers the lowest building and erection cost worldwide.
The AQUAFIL LBT includes, besides other equipment the well-known and proven AQUAFIL UPR and DRC (finisher) reactor from the AQUAFIL 2-Reactor technology and fits into a simple storage hall and does not require any difficult building structures. Exemplary the building height of an AQUAFIL LBT polyester bottle plant is 50% less compared to other modern PET bottle plants (conventional CP+SSP or Melt Phase CP). The AQUAFIL LBT bottle plant can produce viscosities up to 0.85 IV without conventional SSP.
The first plant constructed with LBT for polyester film production is in operation in the US since 2014. The second line is running successfully in India since April 2015.
Recycling plants
AQUAFIL Engineering developed unique recycling technologies for polymers. The strategy of the recycling technology is the reuse of post-industrial and consumer waste in the virgin polycondensation / polymerisation plant.
The newest development of AQUAFIL Engineering is a polyester recycling system which is known as EverPET, the brand name for a collection of different recycling systems and includes solutions for mechanical as well as chemical recycling customers. The EverPET material can be fed directly back into the virgin polymer plant and can replace the raw materials PTA and EG. Compared to other recycling technologies, these new process and equipment development are providing an economical recycling solution and a way out of high clear flakes prices and no availability of material.
Polyamide plants
According to the customer required products and capacities AQUAFIL Engineering is offering batch as well as continuous polymerization plants. The Lactam Direct Recycling (LDR) developed by AQUAFIL Engineering is the most efficient and unique Caprolactam Recovery System. Since 2004, the largest single polymerization plant (150t/d) with LDR technology is very successfully in operation in China.
The LDR process combines the advantages of 100% caprolactam usage due to total recycling of extractable, low energy cost, simple plant design and operation, no process waste water, no air pollution and is available for all polymer qualities, even for high quality polyamide products like tire cord, film, foil and high performance textile yarns (HQ-LDR). It is also possible to polymerize the recovered lactam concentrate in a separate polymerization line for production of engineering plastics.
