CASE STUDY: E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co.

- Cape Fear
Plant
Location: Wilmington, NC (Brunswick County)
Industry: Textile Manufacturing (SIC: 2800)
Pollution Prevention Application: Process Modifications, Waste Reduction, Recycling
Annual Savings: $458,000
Payback Period: Immediate
Contact: Kristin Beck, Environmental Specialist (910) 371-5156

Background DuPont’s Cape Fear facility is the largest site in the U. S. devoted to the production
of Dacron polyester yarn and staple and polyester intermediates. Dacron is
used in the manufacture of apparel, home furnishings, and automotive upholstery.

Waste Reduction Yarn-Spinning Transitions

Activities Dacron polyester is produced by spinning small-chain polymers into yarn and
winding the yarn onto rolls to produce yarn packages. Changing spinnerets
produces different deniers (or thicknesses) of yarn. The change from one size of
yarn to another is called a transition. A new set of rolls must also be installed on
the machines for the new size yarn packages, and sampling time is required to
check the yarn size and quality. During the course of a year, there will be
approximately 21 transitions in the yarn area. Previous practice was to operate all
the spinning positions during these transitions, sending the yarn to the waste jets
while the machines were adjusted for the new yarn size. These transitions can take
several hours and produce a large amount of waste.

A cross-functional team of experienced equipment operators and an engineer used

their knowledge to make changes to the transition process to reduce waste. By
changing sampling procedures and using only one spinning position, the sampling
time was cut on the average of 1 hour and reduced all the yarn waste that was
produced during the sampling time. This reduction in waste not only reduced the
actual waste (1 million pounds per year) but also saved resources if the same
poundage of yarn was remade.

Yarn Package Push-Off

Push-off devices used to remove full-sized yarn packages from the winding
equipment can bruise the packages, leaving “dents” in the ends that can affect the
usability of the yarn in weaving or future processes. Once a package is bruised, it
must be reworked or discarded. The cross-functional team redisgned the push-off
devices to reduce the number of yarn packages that were bruised by the equipment.

Development of Polymer Grade Terephthalic Acid

In the past, polyester fiber was produced at the facility in a multi-step, continuous
polymerization process. During the intermediate steps of this process, para-xylene

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 was reacted with acetic acid to produce crude terephthalic acid (TPA). TPA was
then reacted with methanol to produce molten dimethyl terephthalate (DMT). A
reaction between DMT and ethylene glycol produced the polyethylene terephthalate
resin (PET), which was then drawn into fibers, either staple or yarn. The PET or
polyester staple was cut and placed into bales, and polyester yarn was placed on
spools for shipping. Methanol and ethylene glycol by-products were produced
during the process.

After extensive re-engineering efforts, the facility is now able to produce polymer
grade TPA, which is reacted directly with ethylene glycol to produce the PET resin.
This modification completely eliminates the use of methanol and the production of
DMT as an intermediate step in the reaction process, eliminating the methanol
emissions and methanol by-product waste associated with that step.

PET Recycling Facility

During fiber processing, large quantities of PET waste were produced and landfilled
as solid waste. The facility is presently installing a PET recycling facility to
reprocess this material. The PET material will be converted to DMT and glycol via
methanolysis. The DMT will be sold to other facilities for fiber production while
the glycol is reused in the production process. All major emissions of VOC
generated during the recycling process will be diverted to a Dowtherm process
heater for waste heat production.

Glycol Recycling
With the shutdown of the DMT production facilities, duPont was able to modify
idle process equipment into a glycol recycling/refining facility. This facility accepts
glycol from all duPont’s Dacron facilities and purifies millions of pounds of spent
glycol annually.

Polymerization Line Modifications

The Cape Fear facility has also focused on source reduction in the continuous
polymerization units. Innovative process modifications have permitted significant
reductions in process temperatures, which, in turn, reduce compound volatilization
and atmospheric and waterborne emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The VOCs generated during the polymerization process are now separated from
process materials and fed to existing fuel burning units to provide steam to
production processes. The fibers facility also modified the exchanger vents and
methanol tank vents to reduce methanol emissions.

Waste Reduced • The interdisciplinary team’s efforts on yarn spinning transitions and yarn
package push-off reduced the amount of finished Dacron polyester yarn that
was wasted or damaged by 1 million pounds per year.
• The conversion from DMT to TPA in the production process reduced the
facility’s SARA 313 reportable emissions by 36 percent. Other waste reduction
activities have combined for an overall reduction of SARA 313 reportable
emissions by 70 percent.

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 • The glycol refining facility operating with the equipment previously used for
DMT production recycles 150 million pounds of glycol annually.
• The new PET recycling facility will convert 150 million pounds of previously
landfilled material into DMT and glycol for reuse.
• Re-engineering of the continuous polymerization lines reduced atmospheric
emissions of air toxics and carcinogens by 80 percent wastewater treatment
plant by 90 percent.

Annual Savings The yarn spinning transition and yarn package push-off projects produced savings
in both waste reduction and the cost of reworking (actually re-producing) the
finished product yarn. This resulted in savings of $458,000 worth of ingredients
and 8,341 Million BTUs of energy. Both of these changes were made at essentially
no cost with immediate pay back, and demonstrate the effectiveness of a cross-
functional team and its problem-solving capabilities.

No annual savings were calculated from the other recycling and process
modification efforts.

Additional Activities The Cape Fear facility has made significant strides in overall waste reduction in
other areas as well.
• The intermediate facility has installed a thermal catalytic oxidation unit, which
abates organic emissions from various process vents. A 40 percent reduction in
benzene and a 20 percent reduction in methyl bromide emissions have been
realized through the installation of this unit.
• A cobalt catalyst used in the production of intermediates is now recovered at a
rate of 2.3 million pounds per year.
• Approximately 30,000 pounds per year of spent solvent were eliminated from
laboratories and parts washers when halogenated solvents were switched to
non-halogenated solvents.

DuPont de Nemours’ Cape Fear Plant received a Facility Case Study award in the
Large Business Category of the 1997 Governor’s Award for Excellence Waste
Reduction competition.

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