GEPET 18 – April 2017 (Barcelona)

KPET were delighted to be a guest speaker at the 18th GEPET Conference hosted in Barcelona in April 2017. The title/topic of our talk was “A new look into highly modified copolyesters. Properties and applications” and a short sample of this is included below.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is the only polymer that, since more than 50 years ago, has proven the most versatile for applications in all
segments, with full compliance with all environmental and food safety regulations, which have become much more restrictive in the last couple of decades.

PET, which is commonly considered as a “commodity” polymer because of its best known applications: bottles for carbonate soft drinks, water, oil, other foods and trays, is slowly growing its share in more innovative end uses.

For these market segments, PET needs to be chemically modified. In most of cases, the new structure will preserve the key characteristics of a highly recommended polymer: recyclability, food contact safe, and price level well below the
one from other polymers which may be replaced by PET.

In appearance, PET has the winning hand but…what is keeping it from making the great leap forward in new applications, that is, beyond bottles for beverages?

SCAPET 5 – June 2017 (Medellín)

KPET were delighted to be a guest speaker at the 5th SCAPET Conference hosted in Medellín in June 2017. The title/topic of our talk was “A new look into highly modified copolyesters. Properties and applications” and a short sample of this is included below.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is the only polymer that, since more than 50 years ago, has proven the most versatile for applications in all
segments, with full compliance with all environmental and food safety regulations, which have become much more restrictive in the last couple of decades.

PET, which is commonly considered as a “commodity” polymer because of its best known applications: bottles for carbonate soft drinks, water, oil, other foods and trays, is slowly growing its share in more innovative end uses.

For these market segments, PET needs to be chemically modified. In most of cases, the new structure will preserve the key characteristics of a highly recommended polymer: recyclability, food contact safe, and price level well below the one from other polymers which may be replaced by PET.

In appearance, PET has the winning hand but…what is keeping it from making the great leap forward in new applications, that is, beyond bottles for beverages?

Click here for images from the event

GEPET 17 – May 2016 (Venice)

KPET were delighted to be a guest speaker at the 17th GEPET Conference hosted in Venice in May 2016. The title/topic of our talk was “PET: more than bottles for mineral water and fruit trays. Opening horizons” and a short sample of this is included below.

Polyethylene Terephthalate has matured and evolved into a pure commodity product. Widely used for packaging of mineral waters, all kinds of soft drinks, and thermo-formed trays, its market growth has gone from double-digit figures not so many years ago into an almost flat volume growth. This is especially true in the Western markets, where a large penetration of recycled PET has also eroded the market quota for virgin PET.

However, it exists also in the World a very wide array of alternative uses for modified polyethylene terephthalate polymers, with some interesting niche markets providing good opportunities for companies with small capacity assets and with a strong will to invest in market and product development.

From luxury packaging, building parts, car license plates, to blood sampling tubes, a full universe of products and applications exists for PET, offering a rebirth opportunity to some of the industry players. And this is not only a matter of providing profitability to the industry, but also to promote some applications with the most ecological and cost-effective polymer currently available.

Click here for images from the event

Peter Schumann

Peter Schumann joint KPC October 2016.He is responsible for Sales of PET Specialties.

Peter started his career with the PET machine manufacturer Nissei ASB as Service Manager EMEA, then he joint Eastman Chemical as Market Development Manager PET, General Electric as Market Development Manager PEI and Artenius  as Sales Manager PET Specialties.

Mercedes Musa

Mercedes Musa co-founded and joined K-PET Consulting, S.L. (KPC) on December 2013. Currently, she oversees the sales support, administration and marketing segments, including standard PET, specialties grades, recycling products; she is also involved in the development of new applications, such as promoting the use of 3D Printing in the packaging sector and sales of 3D Printing materials.

Mercedes started her professional career after getting her degree as a Chemical Engineer in Venezuela. In 1998, she joined Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., a worldwide oil and petrochemical company.

From 2002 to 2013, she worked at La Seda de Barcelona. There, she held positions of Technical, Sales and Marketing management for the PET and Chemical Division, Artenius. Born in 1976, she now resides in Barcelona, Spain.

José Luís Martínez

Jose Luis Martinez started his career in 1990, in EASTMAN CHEMICAL COMPANY, and worked there for 13 years as Manager for market development of PET and PET-G for South Europe, Middle East and Africa.

In 2003, he joined SELENIS as PET Sales Director and, with the acquisition of SELENIS in 2006 by La Seda de Barcelonan, he became the Sales Director of la Seda de Barcelona. La Seda de Barcelona (Artenius) became a couple of years later the largest European PET and PET-G producer, and one of the top five largest worldwide PET producers, with more than one million mt of installed yearly capacity.

Currently, Jose Luis is leading the sales activities of PET resins and specialty products in K-PET Consulting, S.L. (KPC).

Jose holds a degree in Organic Chemistry from Universidad Complutense, in Madrid, where he resides.

Jordi Foguet

Jordi Foguet has been deeply involved in all the technical, manufacturing and economic fields of the PET industry, since thirty years ago.

His experience includes special PET product development and their end-use applications, recycling and up-stream raw materials technologies, energy efficient systems, cost benchmarking and production process improvements, among others.

Currently, he is the Managing Director of K-PET Consulting, S.L. (KPC), a company that he co-founded at the end 2013, together with other PET Industry experts. Jordi’s responsibility is to lead KPC into becoming a reference consultancy company which offers support at the technical, energy, commercial, and marketing levels to the PET Industry worldwide.

Before starting his current venture, most of his professional career took place at La Seda de Barcelona, where he was the Technical and Manufacturing Manager for all Artenius PET and Recycling Plants in Europe and Turkey.

Jordi holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master in Business Administration, from Universities in Barcelona, where he resides.

P.V.S.PRASAD

Mr.P.V.S.Prasad holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering.  He retired as Sr Vice President from PET bottle resin business of Reliance Industries Ltd, the largest PET bottle resin manufacturer in India. Mr.Prasad was associated with Indian PET bottle industry right from inception and contributed to its growth during last 30 years. He is well conversant with technical and commercial aspects PET bottle resin, PET bottle resin downstream processing and PET bottle recycling.

Prior to joining Reliance Industries, Mr.Prasad worked in reputed  polymer producing companies like Indian Petrochemical Industries Ltd, Century Enka Ltd and Polyolefins Industries Ltd in India wherein he handled both commodity and engineering plastics like PE, PP, Nylons and PBT.

Mr.Prasad is based in Mumbai, India.