The right direction of sustainability

Sustainability: what does it mean, and why should it be considered as a strategic value for the bottling industries?

Almost three decades have passed since the Brundtland Commission coined what has become the most often quoted definition of Sustainable Development: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

Today, in a complex, fast growing and changing world we are seeking attractive Capex (Capital expenditure) and Opex (Operational expenditure) figures. We are afraid about non renewable resources consumption and we are striving ourselves to use clean technologies to get more with less towards a zero waste concept. So, introducing a more holistic approach for Sustainable Development - the Life Cycle Assessment for a product or a technology - is the new phrase that forces us to take care of our Technical System from cradle to grave or, even better, from cradle to cradle again. The rationale behind a Sustainable Development for an Aseptic Filling line is based on an holistic engineering analysis of resource utilization such as:

Material
Space
Energy
Time

while material and energy are more often considered within an optimized Life Cycle Assessments (“streamlining”) thus making clear the ‘what if’ approach through three main environmental indicators:

Global Warming Potential (emission in terms of kg CO2 eq)
Gross Energy Requirements (usually in MJ or kWh)
Water Footprint (kg or litre)

“Sustainable development: development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

**Fig.2.1. PET line process description**

Make sensitive liquid portable & stable

Key useful function and features of an Aseptic Filling line are:

No need for refrigeration (ambient temperature)
From single serve up to 2 litres
Mechanically – microbiologically and organoleptically stable

It means making food/beverage safe, available and affordable to everyone, everywhere. Without Aseptic Filling we couldn’t produce, transport and preserve food/beverage efficiently and allow nomad people consumption.

2.1.

Material

Material for primary and secondary packaging follows the priority pyramid hierarchy

Or in a similar way Sustainable Development can be defined by the ‘3Rs’:

Reduce material/energy for making same packaging
Reuse resources
Recycle

**Fig.2.2. The priority pyramid hierarchy for primary and secondary packaging material**

Reduce: lighter packaging

Reduce the weight of the packaging is the best way to minimize material and save energy. Thanks to aseptic filling the container can be much lighter than the one required for hot fill technology as it is not exposed to high temperature for long time.

Reuse: resources optimization

Aseptic Filling with liquid PAA technology and, even more, with Dry VHP preform/cap technology allows for freedom in packaging weight, shape and additives.

The liquid PAA technology, when used at relatively low temperature, allows the use of quite light bottles without shrinkage problems. Aseptic Blowing system performs even better, because it sterilizes very heat resistant preforms and does not stress the bottles once blown.

In this case the lightweighting of the bottle is determined by the mechanical bottle resistance for palletizing purposes.

Recycle: extend material potential

Given the huge energy ’trapped’ within the material, Sustainable Development has necessarily to pass through full recycling with existing oil PET (from bottle to bottle, B2B) and start investigating the potential of new recyclable non food polymers such as PEF (Polyethylene Furandicarboxylate).

2.2.

Energy

An Aseptic Blow Filling line, processing 1litre bottles at 400bpm

Bill of material

**Índice. 2.1.**
	Material	Mass (g)
Bottle	PET	25
Cap	HDPE	3,5
Label	PVC	2,5
American Box	Corrugated cardboard	20,7
Pallet wrapping film	PE	0,24
Total mass		51,9

Energy Share Total Process

Energy share from Aseptic Blowing to palletizer

Considering only the process from Stretch Blow Moulding up to palletizer on an Aseptic Filling Blow Fill line there are:

**Fig.2.4. Energy share in an aseptic filling line (on the left) and the detail of energy share related to Stretch Blow Moulding (SBM) only (on the right)**

Aseptic Blowing technology uses almost no chemicals, steam or water. Energy usage is kept to a minimum by the elimination of air conveyors, bottle sterilization and rinsing carrousels. The running costs of Aseptic Blowing lines are converging towards those of traditional PET lines. Energy for processing material and making bottles plays the most important role and drives stretch blow moulding producer’s efforts towards further optimization. Electrical energy saving for heating preforms is possible i.e. with:

New oven IR module (Infra Red)
Algorithm for lamp emission control

Other savings in terms of high pressure air for blowing bottles could be:

Low dead volume
Air recovery system

**Índice. 2.2.** Based on a Blower producing in normal environmental conditions, including heating and ventilation of the oven and the blower motor. * Data only for informational purpose
Bottle capacity	Consumption* Watt/Bottle
0.5 L	3.3
1 L	3.9
1.5 L	4.8
2 L	5.2

**Índice. 2.3.** Based on a Blower producing in normal environmental conditions (temperature, altitude and umidity of air) * Data only for informational purpose
Air consumption Nm3 / h
Bottle capacity and speed	Without recovery system	Recovery system with 15% saving	Recovery system with 25 % saving
0.5 L - 48.000 b/h	1.175	1.000	880
1.0 L - 36.000 b/h	1.600	1.360	1.200
1.5 L - 28.000 b/h	2.000	1.700	1.500

In a nutshell the environmental impact from cradle to palletizer gate can be seen in the bargraphs below:

While end of life scenario related to Europe is:

**Índice. 2.4.**
PET Bottle	Mass (g)	Recycling (g)	Incineration (g)	Landfill (g)
PET	25,0	12,5	5	7,5
HDPE	3,5	1,155	1,155	1,19
PVC	2,5	0,825	0,825	0,85
PE Film	0,2	0,066	0,066	0,068
Corrugated Paperboard	20,7	16,146	1,656	2,898
Total	51,9	30,692	8,702	12,506

2.3.

Space

in the bottling industry is a cost: bigger factories, greater expense

Bigger factories also mean less green field space.

In terms of space, Aseptic Blow Filling technology is more compact than traditional aseptic technology and requires fewer operators because there is no need for conveyors and rinsers.

**Fig.2.6. Comparison between a traditional aseptic filling line footprint and an Aseptic Blow Fill line footprint**

2.4.

Time

The most precious resource in everyone’s life but also a cost to industry

Whenever it becomes possible to increase production in the same timeframe, productivity improves.

Process time from a blown bottle to a filled capped bottle can be reduced by 20% compared with a traditional aseptic line. Using an Aseptic Blowing line the blower is integrated in the machine so no time is lost in transferring bottles on conveyors.