KoSa (Houston, TX) has introduced 2201 polyethylene terephthalate resin, which is designed to provide beer packagers with light-weight plastic bottles having sufficient heat-resistance to withstand tunnel pasteurization.
According to KoSa's Bryan Moore, product commercialization manager, a 500-mL bottle weighing 35 to 39 g made of 2201 resin via conventional injection stretch blow molding methods will withstand 25 minutes of pasteurization at 63°C (145°F) . The new resin is also suitable for hot-fill applications, says Moore, but only if heat-set technology is used.
"Improved heat-set characteristics allow for higher production levels, lighter bottles and more storage flexibility than traditional hot-fill applications," says a July 26 press release from KoSa. "The resin's melt and crystallization properties also offer easy processibility in injection molding, stretch blow molding and heat setting."
Moore describes the new material as a copolymer. But that's about as specific as he'll get in describing the material's composition. KoSa claims the 2201 PET resin conforms to appropriate FDA, Health Canada and European Union regulations for food and beverage contact.
One piece of the puzzle
Moore acknowledges that the 2201 PET resin is "one piece of the technology needed behind a pasteurizable plastic beer bottle." If a brewer chose to market beer in a bottle made of 2201 PET, some barrier component would have to be added. Otherwise, carbon dioxide would escape and oxygen would be free to enter and degrade the beer. The barrier could be in the form of a coating or it could be part of a multilayer structure, says Moore.
As for the cost of the new resin, Moore says it's comparable to that of conventional bottle-grade PET. That could make 2201 appealing to Anheuser-Busch. The St. Louis-based brewer has made it clear that what it really wants in a plastic beer bottle is that it be pasteurizable at an acceptable cost.
KoSa is among the firms presenting papers September 26-27 at Nova-Pack Europe 2000, the 8th International Conference on Polyester Containers for Food & Beverages. KoSa representatives will be available to discuss 2201 PET resin at the Neuss, Germany, conference, sponsored by Schotland Business Research (Skillman, NJ).
