The first Russian polyethyleneterephthalate facility put on stream

The first Russian polyethyleneterephthalate facility put on stream

On August 21 JSC Sibur-PETF (Tver) put on stream the first Russian facility to produce granulated bottle-grade polyethyleneterephthalate PET of 52 600 t/y capacity. Sibur invested about $60 million into construction, installation, commissioning and achieving the design performance of PET facility.
The process equipment was supplied by Zimmer AG (Germany), one of the largest engineering companies. Two-stage production is fully automated: PROVOX control system from Fischer-Rosemount (Germany) monitors and maintains the process parameters within the preset limits, prevents failures and monitors the product quality. Less than four hundred people will be employed at the plant.

PETF is used to produce packaging containers for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals and for actually any type of foodstuffs: granular, paste-like, and liquid. Polyethyleneterephthalate is used in manufacturing audio, video and photo films, polymer films, capacitors, and various household items.

In 2002 the global polyethyleneterephthalate output amounted to 26.7 million tons and by 2004 the experts expect it to exceed 31.5 million tons.

Russian PET granules market emerged in early 90-s and its current annual requirements are estimated as 350 000 – 400 000 tons. By 2005 this figure would reach 480 000 – 500 000 tons with its cost per kilo inside Russia being $1.1-1.2. Granulated PET is used to manufacture PET-preforms – bottles intermediates. Overall Russian requirement for preforms reaches 10 billion pieces per year with annual growth rate of 12%. Further national market enhancement is restricted by two factors: preforms deficit and absence of the domestic PET granules production.