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Sep 23, 2023

Moretto

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, GERMANY — Among a number of product innovations, ancillary equipment producer Moretto SpA, based in Massanzago, Italy, gave particular prominence to its Eureka engineering

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, GERMANY — Among a number of product innovations, ancillary equipment producer Moretto SpA, based in Massanzago, Italy, gave particular prominence to its Eureka engineering thermoplastics drying system at Fakuma 2014.

The system consists of three elements, a Flowmatik airflow management and distribution system, the OTX hopper drier and the X Max drier. These integral parts of Eureka were developed over a 13-year period of simulation, experimentation and testing.

With capability to process up to 10,000-12,000 kilograms per hour of different types of plastics granulate material in compounding, extrusion and PET processing, Eureka plays a particularly important role in drying PET. This is because drying PET traditionally involves extremely high energy consumption, the second highest cost after the raw material itself.

Moretto's PET processing customers have observed 56 percent lower energy consumption with Eureka, compared with conventional drying systems, namely compressed air and honeycomb (rotary or wheel) drying systems, according to business development manager Paolo Gasparotto, in a briefing at Fakuma.

Gasparotto said the Moretto zeolite mineral-absorbent-based technology is superior to honeycomb driers as the latter have a much lower amount of zeolite, therefore requiring “a lot of energy.”

In fact, while Moretto uses just zeolite, honeycomb rotary driers usually use 70 percent silica gel and just 30 percent zeolite, involving several times higher desiccant replacement cost and associated 32 percent higher operating cost for the same output and machine investment cost, Moretto founder and President Renato Moretto said.

Aside from the amount of zeolite, it is a customized zeolite that is used by Moretto. This is used as a multi-bed single molecular sieve desiccant system in the core X Max drier unit that provides constant -65°C to -85°C dew point.

Moretto had a truck filled with equipment for additional display at Fakuma.

Gasparotto said processors should not be frightened off by the zeolite bed being twice the size of conventional beds, as it not only works without requiring cooling water or compressed air for the changeover valve, but also features complete energy recovery by rotation, heat being recovered from cooling of the bed during molecular sieve regeneration.

But it is not just the zeolite drying technology that brings constant performance and high energy savings, but also for example, a new four-stage multi-stage centrifugal turbine blower developed with Padua University. This has been introduced in the first X Max 918 driers, which consume 13.2 kilowatts per hour when drying at a rate of 1,800 cubic meters per hour. This performance was recognized by customers buying 27 X Max 918 systems in the first three months after the 2013 introduction.

Eureka incorporates an original thermal exchange (OTX) hopper drier with innovative coaxial internal geometry ensuring even material and air flow through the hopper for drying efficiency and lower energy consumption than conventional hoppers.

The third element making up a complete Eureka system is Moretto's Flowmatik airflow management unit. This was first launched at Fakuma 2005 and can stop one or more driers and distribute the reduced load over the other driers.

Renato Moretto is particularly proud of the Leonardo computer used by Moretto's R&D department, used to design all components for optimum quality, economy and performance. The Leonardo computer operates at 22,000 billion operations per second and is one of just three such computers in Europe.

Asked about the return on investment with Eureka, Renato Moretto said the system can pay for itself through higher efficiency within three months — and that the entire investment cost of the Eureka system can be amortized within 12-24 months.

Moretto said Eureka has attracted interest mostly in more “mature” markets, where there tends to be more concern about ecology and energy saving, with the first target market in the United States supported by establishment of Moretto's first sales subsidiary in the country in Columbus, Ohio, in September 2014. An office in Russia will open in 2015, he said.

And it is in the U.S. where Moretto has a Eureka reference customer in the form of a carpet producer with 102 production sites in the country consuming 7.9 million tons per year of PET, which has installed a Eureka system consisting of an unspecified number of X Max 918 driers and 32 OTX units. The system dries 5,000 to 6,000 kilograms per hour of virgin and recycled plastic, and has led to Moretto to claim it as “the worldwide largest installed system for drying plastics.”

The U.S. carpet producer had compared performance with a competitor using conventional drying equipment, confirming 56 percent energy consumption saving in the company's drying processes, accounting for a 24 percent reduction of the company's overall energy consumption.

Renato Moretto stated in Friedrichshafen that the usual business approach is for Moretto to contractually commit to the customer's level of energy saving to be achieved, following studies by independent “energy agencies.”

In conclusion, Renato Moretto said, “In my professional life, I have never seen such an important project as Eureka, so we are applying all of our forces to introduce it to customers.”

One way in which the company is bringing its expertise and products to customers was very visible at Fakuma 2014, as the company had not only a booth in one of the exhibition halls, but also a truck in Moretto's corporate red color in the open area between the halls which was filled with Moretto equipment and interested Fakuma visitors.

Fakuma 2014 was described by Moretto as “just the first stop-over” of the “Moretto in Motion” European tour. It continued after the fair in Germany and will be seen elsewhere in Europe later on.

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