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#Recycling / Circular Economy

Efficient recycling of textile PET

VacuFil® Visco+ testing plant in BB Engineering‘s tech-nical centre © 2026 BBE
At the upcoming Plastics Recycling Show Europe in Amsterdam on May 5–6, BB Engineering will present its portfolio of PET recycling technologies. The German machinery manufacturer will once again focus on textile recycling and melt filtration.

Versatile portfolio with a focus on textiles

BB Engineering’s product portfolio includes components and systems for the production of films and synthetic fibers, as well as for PET recycling. With extruders, various filters, and com-plete spinning and recycling plants, the company possesses ex-tensive expertise in plastics processing and can offer compre-hensive PET recycling solutions from a single source. Based on its experience in the synthetic fiber industry, BB Engineering places a special focus on textile recycling (PET). BB Engineer-ing will highlight its VacuFil® and COBRA® systems at PRSE.

VacuFil® Visco+ - PET LSP recycling at the highest standard

The VacuFil® PET recycling plant combines gentle large-area fil-tration with precise IV adjustment, thereby ensuring consistent-ly outstanding rPET melt quality.

From bottle-to-bottle to 100% fiber-to-fiber: Thanks to its modu-lar design, VacuFil® can be exactly tailored to individual re-quirements. A wide variety of PET feedstocks — such as flakes, textile waste, fiber waste, or start-up lumps — are processed re-liably, while the IV is specifically adjusted to the desired end product.

At the heart of the system is the patented Visco+ component. Using liquid-state polycondensation, it reliably removes volatile contaminants and delivers an exceptionally homogeneous melt with a viscosity of ±0.01 dl/g — up to 50% faster than compara-ble LSP systems. Depending on the throughput, a viscosity in-crease of up to 30% can be achieved.

Continuous process monitoring via an online viscometer en-sures a stable and reproducible output. VacuFil® has a capacity of 150 to 4,000 kg/h.

COBRA® sets new standards in melt filtration

With the development of its latest melt filter COBRA® BB Engi-neering has created a clear solution to the growing demands of the recycling industry. The goal: to reliably handle even high lev-els of contamination, simplify filter changes and cleaning, and at the same time significantly reduce operating costs.

The result is a high-performance system that combines contin-uous large-area filtration with automated, chemical-free inter-mediate cleaning. Two filter cartridges with automatic switch-ing ensure stable, safe, and uninterrupted operation — even at high contamination levels where conventional candle filters or screen changers reach their limits.

A key advantage lies in the integrated cleaning system: it signif-icantly extends the service life of the filter media while simul-taneously reducing operational effort, melt losses, and energy consumption — all without the use of chemicals. This not only enhances process reliability but also sustainably lowers operat-ing costs.

Thanks to its high flexibility, COBRA® is suitable for both coarse and fine filtration. In addition to its use in PET recycling, the system also offers great potential for increasing efficiency in other applications, such as plastic spinning, and can be easily retrofitted there.

COBRA® filter © 2026 BBE
COBRA® filter © 2026 BBE





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