Background

Paper making 2000 years old, started in China World Consumption 300 million tons/year Highest consumption in the US 700 lbs/person, followed by Finland 500 paper mills in operation in the US, 10,000 worldwide

Paper Manufacturing
Made from the natural fibers in wood cellulose Fibers from both hard and soft woods Softwoods have long fibers, hard woods short fibers Long fibers add strength -used for grocery bags and boxes Short fibers used to make paper smoother

Fibers are often blended to combine physical properties Hardwood fibers blended with softwood to make paper strong yet smooth Plants other than trees can be utilized in paper making -straw, cotton, bamboo, eucalyptus, kenaf have all been used Over 45% of paper in the US is recovered for use in the paper industry

Composition of wood Wood is about 50% cellulose and 30-40% lignins. The fibers and xylem tracheids in the wood are almost pure cellulose.

The mechanical process

In this process, the wood pulp is ground and the fibers still are mixed with pectins and lignin. The fibers are short and weak. The resultant paper is not of good quality and yellows quickly. Today newspapers, catalogs, paper towels, cardboard, cheap magazines, building boards, etc. are made by this process. None of these is expected to last indefinitely. The yield of paper compared to the amount of wood used is relatively high, often about 90%. About one fourth of all paper is made by the mechanical process. Made from spruce, fir, some pine and hemlock. These trees have light colored woods and long fibers.

The soda process

In 1851, a process in which wood was treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was devised which dissolved away the lignins from the wood fibers. This process produces a relatively weak paper. Blotters are usually made by this process. Yields are about 48%. A number of hardwoods are usually used. Usually uses hardwoods. Aspen, cottonwood, basswood, beech, birch, maple and gum.

The sulfite process

This process was developed in 1857. Solutions of sulfites and sulfur dioxide (sulfurous acid) are used to dissolve the lignins. The fiber has good strength properties and can be bleached with chlorine and calcium hypochlorite. Unfortunately, paper made by the sulfite process has a high acid content and gradually the paper becomes brittle and disingegrates. The acid doesn't come from the digestion itself, but from acid added later in the processing. Most books printed since 1850 have been printed on this kind of paper. Yields are less than 50%. Mostly softwoods that are low in resin. Spruce, fir, hemlock, tamarack, some pines, but also birch and aspen. Used for books, bond paper, wrapping paper, tissue, rayon, and to mix with other pulps.

The sulfate or Kraft process In this case, the wood is treated with sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. This process was developed about 1885. Just about any kind of wood can be used. Normally the pulp is not bleached. Yields still less than 50%. Conifer woods are commonly employed. The xylem tracheids of these trees are longer than the xylem vessels of hardwoods (2.0-4.0 to 0.5-1.5 mm). Tall oil is a by product of pulping. This material contains resins and fatty acids.

A pulp digester converts wood chips into pulp by cooking a mixture of wood chips and white liquor to a targeted K or Kappa number. The quality of the pulp (high brightness and lower screen rejects) and overall higher pulp yield are determined by cooking time, cooking temperature, liquor to wood ratio, sulphidity, and wood chip quality.
The Effective Alkali concentration, which is measured in the digester, is used to control the cooking and white liquor addition processes. Precise control of Effective Alkali results in higher levels of sulphidity being maintained in the White Liquor (25-35%), which in turn ensures that optimal levels of active chemical concentration for kraft cooking are obtained. The data for this application note came from a continuous digester, one of three digesters in a 1,350 tons/day bleached kraft pulp mill. The Control Objective The objective is to achieve maximum pulp production at a specified K or Kappa number with a minimum input of chemicals and energy and a minimum contribution to effluent. Controlling the digester is difficult because: long residence time of pulp in the digester results in a dead time of 2 to 4 hours; and chip moisture content can vary by 30% during a day's production. The Effective Alkali was measured every thirty minutes using an on-line analyzer.

The Control Objective

The control objective is to keep the brightness of the pulp after the chlorination tower at a constant target level, with a minimum of residual chemical at that point. This minimizes the use of bleaching chemicals while obtaining the desired pulp brightness.
Controlling this bleaching process is very difficult because: the chemical reaction of chlorine with lignin takes 20 to 40 minutes to progress through the chlorination tower; the reaction rate depends on many factors including temperature, pH, cleanliness and K number of the incoming stock, and the species of wood; and the reactivity and thus gain of the process loop is quite different for each bleaching agent (elemental chlorine or various substitution levels of chlorine dioxide), and plants increasingly employ these variations. Conventional control for this system consists of monitoring the stock flow and calculating an approximate dose of chlorine. The dosage set point is then controlled from the combined brightness and chlorine residual signals before the chlorination tower.

General Schematic of Paper Making

The same paper machine line can be used to produce a hundred different kinds of paper, depending on the kind of pulp, thickness and line speed. Paper can vary from very thin, high quality "Bible Paper" to very heavy, low quality box or kraft paper used to make 'cardboard boxes'. Typically mills are broadly separated according to "High Quality Papers" or "Kraft Mills". Kraft mills make the same paper all the time, with small variations for basis weight or coatings. Quality Paper mills tend to make a variety of papers that mostly serve the printing industry. Newsprint falls someplace in the middle

The Fourdrinier is the most common paper making machine The picture shows all of the major sections, but is simplified when compared to most machines in use today. Today's machines are much larger (longer) to allow for faster line speeds. The Dryer Section may include over 100 steam cans (drums). Line speed is almost always above 500 feet per minute, and may exceed 1,000 feet per minute. Machines have also become wider. The average width exceeds 100 inches

Head Box - receives the liquid pulp, with all ingredients ready to make the paper Flow Spreader - controls the pulp distribution on the Table Fourdrinier Table - a perforated conveyor belt that supports the pulp solids and allows the water to drain through Press Section - rollers that squeeze water from the pulp Dryer Section - typically steam drums (cans) that progressively dry the pulp as it turns to paper; the drying section may also include electric or gas infrared heaters and convection heating hoods. Calendar Stack - metal rollers that compress the paper to form uniform thickness; may be smooth or include some sort of pattern or texture. Reel - takes up the paper as it is finished .

When the paper sheet enters the paper machine Dryer Section, it is about 50% water. It must be dried to less than 10% water for a finished product. The most common Dryer Sections include Steam Cylinders and Air Dyers. Infrared Dryers are most commonly used on coating lines. Drying occurs in Three Phases or Zones.

In the Heating Phase the sheet enters at about 100F and is brought up to about 180F. Generally, about the first 5 cylinders are considered the 'Heating Phase'. In the Constant Rate Zone, heat is added at about the same rate that evaporation is removing the heat. Most of the water is removed in the Constant Rate Zone. The Falling Rate Zone is the most difficult as it must remove the last 10% or so of moisture without causing problems related to un-even or over-drying.

Dryer Types Steam Cylinders/Cans/Drums (Conduction) Paper Board Paper Air Dryers (Convection) Tissue - Yankee Dryer Market Pulp - Flakt Dryer Steam Cylinders Steam cylinders are 4 - 5 feet in diameter and slightly longer than the width of the paper sheet. A typical paper machine has 40 to over 100 steam cylinders, depending on the line speed; the faster the line speed, the longer the drying section. Typical machines are as long as a football field and 3 to 5 stories tall. They require 1,275 to 1,575 BTUs steam input per pound of water dried from the sheet.

Air Dryers Air dryers are direct fired or use steam-to-air heat exchangers to produce a hot air stream that is forced over the surface of the paper. Hoods or 'caps' are used to contain and direct the air flow. Air dryers tend to be used on lighter weights of paper, such as tissues, and to supplement the drying of steam cylinders. A Yankee Dryer is a specific kind of dryer used most commonly for Tissue and Toweling manufacturing that combines a large steam cylinder and an air hood. The Flakt Pulp Dryer is also a special kind of air dryer that is used to dry "market pulp" (Pulp that is made in one location and sold for final paper manufacturing at another location). A Flakt Dryer is constructed in decks that the pulp serpentines through as hot air is blasted through it by a series of jets. IR Dryers produce infrared radiation from a hot surface. Different wave lengths are produced from different kinds of heaters and varies with temperature. How receptive a material is to IR energy is a function of its surface reflectance and the IR wavelength. The more receptive the material, the higher the IR system efficiency

Natural Gas IR Heaters operating at about 1,800F (1,000C) produce an IR wave-length between 2 and 3.5 microns. This is also the segment that both paper and water have a high receptiveness. When the IR energy is absorbed by the surface water, its temperature rapidly increases and it evaporates. When the paper absorbs the IR, its temperature also increases and drives out the moisture from within the sheet.
The net effect is a very efficient system that uses over 50% of the available energy to dry the sheet. In some applications the exhaust gas can be recovered to pre-heat incoming air and further increase efficiency.

Locating IR Heaters

The diagram shows potential locations of IR Heaters to accomplish required results and require the minimum amount of retro-fit work:

The IR Advantage Gas IR heaters produce more drying, in a smaller space, more efficiently, than any other drying system available

Kappa Number: A term used to define the degree of delignification. Kraft Pulp: The predominant fiber used by the paper industry. It is obtained by cooking wood chips with the chemicals sodium sulfate and sodium hydroxide. The sodium sulfate is converted to sodium sulfide in the process. It is the sodium sulfide that is actually the effective cooking agent, but the word sulfate is still used as the title. Lignin: A complex constituent of the wood that cement the cellulose fibers together. Pulp: A suspension of cellulose fibers in water.