Acetaldehyde Generation in Processing PET by Means of Hot Runner Systems

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a polyester widely used as packaging material in drink-bottling application. PET is rather sensitive to heat and oxidation and during processing it may undergo degradation reaction with generation of acetaldehyde. In this work the generation of acetaldehyde in a hot runner system has been measured. A special test apparatus was developed to separate the contributions due to the action of the extruder screw from those due to the melt residence at high temperature. Results showed that the acetaldehyde content non-linearly increases with temperature and residence time. A model has been proposed to provide for the generation of acetaldehyde as a function of temperature and residence time regardless of the geometry and other specific conditions of the process.