“Basic Design of Pulp Manufacturing process”

Project Proposal

Project Supervisor:

Dr. Bibek Uprety

Submitted by:

Karuna Chhetri (42335)

Sushant Mahat (42345)

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

June, 2020

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Contents
1: Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Objectives: .......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.3 Scope:.................................................................................................................................................. 5
2: Design Basis ............................................................................................................................................. 5
2.1 Table: Battery Limit Conditions and Design Basis............................................................................. 5
2.2 Design Codes ...................................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Regulation for Safety and Environment.............................................................................................. 6
2.4 Location .............................................................................................................................................. 6
2.5 Climate ................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.6 Kinetic expression ............................................................................................................................... 7
3. Process Description ................................................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Impregnation ....................................................................................................................................... 9
3.2 Cooking ............................................................................................................................................... 9
3.3 Recovery process .............................................................................................................................. 10
3.4 Blowing ............................................................................................................................................. 11
3.5 Screening........................................................................................................................................... 11
3.6 Washing ............................................................................................................................................ 11
3.7 Bleaching .......................................................................................................................................... 12
3.8 Process chemicals ............................................................................................................................. 12
3.9 Byproducts and emissions................................................................................................................. 13
3.10 Chemical reactions involved ........................................................................................................... 13
4. Process Flow Diagram(PFD) .................................................................................................................. 15
5. List of Equipments .................................................................................................................................. 16
6. Energy Intensity of key processes ........................................................................................................... 16
7. Gantt Chart .............................................................................................................................................. 18
8. Expected Results ..................................................................................................................................... 19
9.Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................. 19
9. References ............................................................................................................................................... 20

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List of Figures:
Fig (1): Delignification Kraft Pulping Rate for Softwoods………………………………….7
Fig (2): Overview of Kraft pulping process………………………………………………….9
Fig (3): Flow sheet for pulp manufacturing process………………………………………….14
Fig (4): Process flow diagram for pulp manufacturing………………………………………15
Fig (5): Material and Energy flows in pulp and paper industry……………………………….17

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1: Introduction
1.1 Background
Pulp and paper mills are highly complex and integrate many different process areas including
wood preparation, pulping, chemical recovery, bleaching, and papermaking to convert wood to the
final product. Processing options and the type of wood processed are often determined by the final
product. The pulp for papermaking may be produced from virgin fibre by chemical or mechanical
means or may be produced by the repulping of paper for recycling. Wood is the main original raw
material. Paper for recycling accounts for about 50 % of the fibres used – but in a few cases straw,
hemp, grass, cotton and other cellulose-bearing material can be used. Paper production is basically
a two-step process in which a fibrous raw material is first converted into pulp, and then the pulp is
converted into paper. The harvested wood is first processed so that the fibres are separated from
the unusable fraction of the wood, the lignin. Pulp making can be done mechanically or chemically.
The pulp is then bleached and further processed, depending on the type and grade of paper that is
to be produced. In the paper factory, the pulp is dried and pressed to produce paper sheets. Post-
use, an increasing fraction of paper and paper products is recycled. Non recycled paper is either
landfilled or incinerated.
The pulp and paper industry is one of the most important industries in the world. It supplies paper
to over 5 billion people worldwide. Originally, papermaking was a slow and labor-intensive
process. Today pulping and papermaking are driven by capital-intensive technical equipment and
high-tech and high-speed paper machines that produce rolls of paper at a speed that may reach
2000 m/min. and with a web width that may exceed 8 m. Paper is essentially a sheet of cellulose
fibres with a number of added constituents, when necessary, to affect the quality of the sheet and
its fitness for the intended end use. The two terms paper and board generally refer to the weight of
the product sheet with paper ranging up to about 160 or 220 g/m 2 and a heavier sheet regarded as
board. The grammage above which papers are called board however vary slightly between
countries.
There are several types of pulping processes. The main ones are:
 Chemical pulping
 Mechanical pulping
 Recycled paper re-pulping
Pulp and paper mills convert cellulosic fibers, mostly wood, into pulp and various types of paper
products. At present, more than half of the globally produced pulp comes from the Kraft or sulfate
pulping process. In the Kraft pulping process, the continuous pulp digester is one of the most
critical components. The digester is a complex heterogeneous reactor in which white liquor—an
aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide—reacts with wood chips comprising
mainly of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin, to remove lignin and subsequently free wood fibers.
Due to the naturally varying feedstock, long and variable residence time, insufficient
measurements and complex physio-chemical characteristics, the digester requires sophisticated
control strategies to ensure safe and economically viable operations

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Two most important design parameters for a traditional continuous digester are the cross sectional
load (typical design was 50 cubic feet of chips per square foot and hour) and retention times
(typically 40-60 minutes for impregnation, 75-90 minutes for cooking, 150-220 minutes for
washing). In most mills the production has been increased to 50-100% above the design and the
kappa target and wood species can also be changed.

1.2 Objectives:
 To provides a detailed description of the continuous pulp cooking process
 To produce pulp with specific quality while maintaining targeted production rate
 To design continuous digester
 To carry out the hazard identification and risk assessment of pulp manufacturing process
 To learn what modifications can be done in digester design.

1.3 Scope:
The scope of pulping is to break the recycled paper or wood down into its component elements so
that the fibers can be separated, by removing lignin, a non-fibrous constituent of wood, that is
primarily responsible for reducing paper quality and permanence.

2: Design Basis
2.1 Table: Battery Limit Conditions and Design Basis
For Digester:
Operating Inlet In between outlet
Conditions
Temperature(C) 140-150 170-180 65
Pressure(atm) 1 10-12 80
Flowrate 41700 kg/hr
or more

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2.2 Design Codes

Various design codes are provided by various companies, among which primary design codes were
used as follows:
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
 ASME Section II - Material specification
 ASME Section VIII- Pressure Vessel code
Tubular Exchanger Manufacturer Association (TEMA)

2.3 Regulation for Safety and Environment

According to Environment Protection Act, 1997, the concentrations of pollutants that an industry
can release on yearly basis are kept under consideration of:
 Environmental Protection Act,1997
 Occupational Health and Safety Guidelines
 National Occupational Safety and Health Policy
 Water Resources Act 1992 and Water Resource Refutation 1993
 Industrial Policy 1992

2.4 Location
Any ideal industrial areas which have flat land and well drained conditions are suitable for the
establishment of industry.
Pulp mills are almost always located near large bodies of water due to their substantial demand for
water. Delignification of chemical pulps releases considerable amounts of organic material into
the environment, particularly into rivers or lakes. The wastewater effluent can also be a major
source of pollution, containing lignin from the trees, high biological oxygen
demand(BOD)and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), along with alcohols, chlorates, heavy metals,
and chelating agents. The process effluents can be treated in a biological effluent treatment plant,
which can substantially reduce their toxicity.

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2.5 Climate
• Approx. maximum temperature- 45C
• Approx. minimum temperature- 10C
• Pressure- Normal (1 atm)

2.6 Kinetic expression

Fig (1): Delignification Kraft Pulping Rate for Softwoods at 160▫C

At constant sulfidity and alkali charge, the delignification rate is regarded as a homogeneous first
order reaction with respect to Lignin concentration (wt %) in the wood using the expression
(Vroom (1957)): -
dL/dt = kL where ‘k’ is the rate constant.
The temperature dependency of ‘k’ is provided as
Lnk= (43.2 – 16.113/T).
where T is the temperature of the digester.

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3. Process Description

Generally, wood chips, saw dusts, barks and other small pieces are ingredients for paper and green
electricity. Wood chips and saw dusts can be used to manufacture pulps from which paper is made;
barks and other small pieces known as hog fuels can be burnt for generating steams that powers
paper mills and runs turbine to generate green electricity.
Basically wood chips contain 50% water, 25% cellulose fiber (which is main ingredient required
to make pulp) and 25% liquid called Lignin which acts as natural glue. To get fiber, we must
remove lignin.
Digesters are like large pressure cookers where wood chips are places in it along with liquid
cooking chemicals called white liquor. Here, steam is introduced. As, heat and pressure increases
the lignin begins to dissolve and wood chips begin to break down.
White liquor acts as soap separating wood fibers and washing out glue i.e. lignin. The cooking
liquid now containing broken down lignin is called Black Liquor. When it leaves the digester, it is
very dilute containing a lot of water. Water is evaporated out concentrating remaining lignin and
cooking chemicals.
This mixture is now burned in especially designed boiler called Recovery Boiler which generates
steam electricity for mill. After burning all the remaining of black liquor we get called Green
Liquor.
In final process, lime is added restoring and recycling original chemical composition. At this stage,
mixture is again known as white liquor and is ready to begin cycle again in the digester.
This cycle of White to Black to Green and back again to White cycles again and again making
process not only environmentally sound but also very cost effective.
Back at digesters, the remaining cellulose fiber is not yet totally pure. In order to get rid of
remaining lignin, the fiber is transferred to bleaching stations. Here pulp is washed with bleach
and water in series of steps assuring all remaining lignin has been removed. In each steps, the fiber
becomes whiter and whiter.
From here, cellulose fiber i.e. pulp is either sent to the tissue mill, paperboard mill or to pulp dryer
where it’s dried, stored for future use.
Water is key in paper mill. Millions of gallons per day may be required for cooling and cleaning
purposes. It is required for removing product throughout mill and inside boilers to produce steam
and cool machinery. Thus water is continuously recycled throughout the mills. In the end, water
is returned to river but only after being filtered, cleaned and purified through very complex system.

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 Fig(2): overview of Kraft pulping process

3.1 Impregnation
Common wood chips used in pulp production are 12-25 millimeters long and 2-10 millimeters
thick. The chips normally first enter the pre-steaming where they are wetted and preheated with
steam. Cavities inside fresh wood chips are partly filled with liquid and partly with air. The steam
treatment causes the air to expand and about 25% of the air to be expelled from the chips. The next
step is to saturate the chips with black and white liquor. Air remaining in chips at the beginning of
the liquor impregnation is trapped within chips. The impregnation can be done before or after the
chips enter the digester and is normally done below 100 °C (212 °F). The cooking liquors consist
of a mixture of white liquor, water in chips, condensed steam and weak black liquor. In the
impregnation, cooking liquor penetrates into the capillary structure of the chips and low
temperature chemical reactions with the wood begin. A good impregnation is important to get a
homogeneous cook and low rejects. About 40–60% of all alkali consumption, in the continuous
process, occurs in the impregnation zone.

3.2 Cooking
The wood chips are then cooked in pressurized vessels called digesters. Some digesters operate in
a batch manner and some in a continuous process. There are several variations of the cooking
processes both for the batch and the continuous digesters. Digesters producing 1,000 tones’ or
more of pulp per day are common, with the largest producing more than 3,500 tones’ per day. In
a continuous digester, the materials are fed at a rate that allows the pulping reaction to being
completed by the time the materials exit the reactor. Typically, delignification requires several
hours (1.5 hours) at 170 to 176 °C (338 to 349 °F). Under these conditions lignin and hemicellulose
degrade to give fragments that are soluble in the strongly basic liquid. The solid pulp (about 50%
by weight of the dry wood chips) is collected and washed. At this point the pulp is known as brown
stock because of its color. The combined liquids, known as black liquor (because of its color),
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contain lignin fragments, carbohydrates from the breakdown of hemicellulose, sodium carbonate,
sodium sulphate and other inorganic salts.

net reaction in depolymerization of lignin by SH− (Ar = aryl, R = alkyl groups).

One of the main chemical reactions that underpin the kraft process is the scission of ether bonds
by the nucleophilic sulphide (S2−) or bisulphide (HS−) ions.
3.3 Recovery process
The excess black liquor contains about 15% solids and is concentrated in a multiple effect
evaporator. After the first step the black liquor has about 20–30% solids. At this concentration
the rosin soap rises to the surface and is skimmed off. The collected soap is further processed to tall
oil. Removal of the soap improves the evaporation operation of the later effects.
The weak black liquor is further evaporated to 65% or even 80% solids ("heavy black liquor") and
burned in the recovery boiler to recover the inorganic chemicals for reuse in the pulping process.
Higher solids in the concentrated black liquor increases the energy and chemical efficiency of the
recovery cycle, but also gives higher viscosity and precipitation of solids (plugging and fouling of
equipment) During combustion, sodium sulfate is reduced to sodium sulfide by the organic carbon
in the mixture:
1. Na2SO4 + 2 C → Na2S + 2 CO2
This reaction is similar to thermochemical sulphate reaction in geochemistry.
The molten salts ("smelt") from the recovery boiler are dissolved in a process water known as
"weak wash". This process water, also known as "weak white liquor" is composed of all liquors
used to wash lime mud and green liquor precipitates. The resulting solution of sodium carbonate
and sodium sulfide is known as "green liquor", although it is not known exactly what causes the
liquor to be green. This liquid is mixed with calcium oxide, which becomes calcium hydroxide in
solution, to regenerate the white liquor used in the pulping process through an equilibrium reaction
(Na2S is shown since it is part of the green liquor, but does not participate in the reaction):
2. Na2CO3 + Ca(OH)2 ←→ 2 NaOH + CaCO3
Calcium carbonate precipitates from the white liquor and is recovered and heated in a lime kiln
where it is converted to calcium oxide (lime).
3. CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
Calcium oxide (lime) is reacted with water to regenerate the calcium hydroxide used in Reaction
2:
4. CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2

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The combination of reactions 1 through 4 form a closed cycle with respect to sodium, sulfur and
calcium and is the main concept of the so-called re-causticizing process where sodium carbonate
is reacted to regenerate sodium hydroxide.
The recovery boiler also generates high pressure steam which is fed to turbogenerators, reducing
the steam pressure for the mill use and generating electricity.
A modern kraft pulp mill is more than self-sufficient in its electrical generation and normally will
provide a net flow of energy which can be used by an associated paper mill or sold to neighboring
industries or communities through to the local electrical grid. Additionally, bark and wood residues
are often burned in a separate power boiler to generate steam.
3.4 Blowing
The finished cooked wood chips are blown to a collection tank called a blow tank that operates at
atmospheric pressure. This releases a lot of steam and volatiles. The volatiles are condensed and
collected; in the case of northern softwoods this consists mainly of raw turpentine.
3.5 Screening
Screening of the pulp after pulping is a process whereby the pulp is separated from large shives,
knots, dirt and other debris. The accept is the pulp. The material separated from the pulp is
called reject.
The screening section consists of different types of sieves (screens) and centrifugal cleaning. The
sieves are normally set up in a multistage cascade operation because considerable amounts of good
fibers can go to the reject stream when trying to achieve maximum purity in the accept flow.
The fiber containing shives and knots are separated from the rest of the reject and reprocessed
either in a refiner or is sent back to the digester. The content of knots is typically 0.5–3.0% of the
digester output, while the shives content is about 0.1–1.0%.
3.6 Washing
The brown stock from the blowing goes to the washing stages where the used cooking liquors are
separated from the cellulose fibers. Normally a pulp mill has 3-5 washing stages in series. Washing
stages are also placed after oxygen delignification and between the bleaching stages as well. Pulp
washers use counter current flow between the stages such that the pulp moves in the opposite
direction to the flow of washing waters. Several processes are
involved: thickening / dilution, displacement and diffusion. The dilution factor is the measure of
the amount of water used in washing compared with the theoretical amount required to displace
the liquor from the thickened pulp. Lower dilution factor reduces energy consumption, while
higher dilution factor normally gives cleaner pulp. Thorough washing of the pulp reduces the
chemical oxygen demand (COD).

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Several types of washing equipment are in use:
 Pressure diffusers
 Atmospheric diffusers
 Vacuum drum washers
 Drum displacers
 Wash presses

3.7 Bleaching
To produce white paper, the pulp is bleached. The chemicals used to bleach pulp must be
environment friendly. Bleaching with chlorine produces dioxins and other undesirable products.
So, nowadays pulp is bleached with hydrogen peroxide, ozone, chlorine dioxide, oxygen etc. The
objective of bleaching is to remove small fractions of lignin that remains after digestion
In a modern mill, brownstock (cellulose fibers containing approximately 5% residual lignin)
produced by the pulping is first washed to remove some of the dissolved organic material and then
further delignified by a variety of bleaching stages.
In the case of a plant designed to produce pulp to make brown sack paper or linerboard for boxes
and packaging, the pulp does not always need to be bleached to a high brightness. Bleaching
decreases, the mass of pulp produced by about 5%, decreases the strength of the fibers and adds to
the cost of manufacture.
3.8 Process chemicals
Process chemicals are added to improve the production process:
Impregnation aids. Surfactants may be used to improve impregnation of the wood chips with the
cooking liquors.
Anthraquinone is used as a digester additive. It works as a redox catalyst by oxidizing
cellulose and reducing lignin. This protects the cellulose from degradation and makes the lignin
more water-soluble
An emulsion breaker can be added in the soap separation to speed up and improve the separation
of soap from the used cooking liquors by flocculation
Defoamers remove foam and speed up the production process. Drainage of washing equipment is
improved and gives cleaner pulp.
Dispersing agents, detackifiers and complexing agents keep the system cleaner and reduce the
need for maintenance stops.

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Fixation agents are fixating finely dispersed potential deposits to the fibers and thereby
transporting it out of the process.

3.9 Byproducts and emissions

The main byproducts of kraft pulping are crude sulfate turpentine and tall oil soap. The availability
of these is strongly dependent on wood species, growth conditions, storage time of logs and chips,
and the mill's process. Pines are the most extractive rich woods. The raw turpentine is volatile and
is distilled off the digester, while the raw soap is separated from the spent black liquor by
decantation of the soap layer formed on top of the liquor storage tanks. From pines the average
yield of turpentine is 5–10 kg/t pulp and of crude tall oil is 30–50 kg/t pulp.

3.10 Chemical reactions involved

(i) Digestion (hydrolysis and solubilization of lignin)

R-R’ + NaOHR”COONa + ROH
R-R’ + Na2S Mercaptans

(ii) Chemical recovery from black liquor

 Smelting
2NaR + air Na2CO3 + CO2
(lignin)
Na2SO4 + 2C  Na2S + 2CO2
(from R) (white liquor)
 Causticizing
Na2CO3 (aq) + Ca(OH)2 (s)  2NaOH (aq) + CaCO3 (s)
(green liquor) (white liquor)

CaCO3CaO + CO2
CaO + H2O Ca(OH)2

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Fig (3): Flow sheet for pulp manufacturing process chemical recovery

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4. Process Flow Diagram(PFD)

Fig (4): process flow diagram for pulp manufacturing

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5. List of Equipments

The list of equipments is given below:

 Chipper Bin
 Digester tower
 Heat Exchanger
 Blow down valve
 Blow tank
 Screens
 Filters

6. Energy Intensity of key processes

Pulp and paper production is an energy-intensive industry. On a global scale, it is the fourth largest
industrial consumer of energy, consuming 5.7% of total industrial energy use. Production of pulp
and paper requires energy input in the form of heat and power
According to BREF, the main energy input in pulp and paper manufacturing are shown in the
Figure below:

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 Fig (5): Material and Energy flows in pulp and paper industry

Heat energy is usually made available in the form of high pressure steam, used to generate
electrical power in turbo-generators, with low or medium pressure steam extraction. Steam can be
used both in pulping and papermaking. A very large steam consumption is related to the drying
section, to evaporate water both from pulp (in pulping plants) or paper (in the continuous
papermaking machine). Electricity is used in several parts of the pulp and paper manufacturing, in
general to move motors for different equipment (e.g. refiners, pulpers, vacuum pumps,
compressors). Moreover, some modern equipment might act in a way that they reduce
consumption of heat, but increase the one of electricity, e.g. electric infrared drying or use of
modern presses that increase the dryiness of the paper at the press section exit and lower steam
consumption in the drying section.

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7. Gantt Chart
Month June June July July July July August August
Week 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2
Tasks
Idea brain storming
Literature Review
Proposal Preparation
Preliminary PFD
Intensive study
Digester design
Bolw Tank design
Screen and Filter design
Multi effect Evaporator Design
P&ID
Verification
Final Defense

Legend

Completed
Remaining

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8. Expected Results
After the completion of project, it is expected that we will be able to design the process flow
diagram, piping and instrumentation diagram, equipment design of Pulp manufacturing process
and also able to determine its feasibility. We may learn what modifications can be done in digester
design particularly as well.

9.Conclusions
This is most popularly used process and is an alkaline process; Na2SO4 is added to the cooking
liquor. So its common name is sulfate process. The presence of sodium sulfide makes bleaching
of pulp easier and the paper produced has better strength. In particular, it is more expensive than
mechanical pulping, but the output has higher quality in terms of fiber length, brightness and
strength. Chemical pulping foresees the cooking of wood chips with chemicals, in order to remove
lignin.
The water network has an important impact on heat consumption in pulp and paper mills. Water
is the main heat transporter and dissipator. Non- isothermal mixing is an important source of heat
degradation. Problems of build-up of contaminants from wood or process chemicals limit the
extent of water closure achievable.
A modern Kraft pulp mill produces more heat and power than necessary for the process. In existing
mills, improved Process Integration typically enables reduction of heat consumption by 15–30%.
Integrating bioprocesses producing high-value-added chemicals and materials into pulp and paper
mills is presently the object of intensive development in the forestry sector. Energy, mass and
infrastructure integration is crucial for the success of such eco-cyclic systems, also called
‘integrated forest bio-refineries’ in the literature. Optimization techniques are also increasingly
used for this purpose. Process Integration in the pulp and paper industry classically leads to fossil-
fuel savings, increase in power production, and reduction of effluents and greenhouse
gas emissions. Beyond these results, Process Integration is also a key factor in the success for
ecological industrial systems around the mills of the future.

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9. References
1. Dryden C. E. (2008). Outlines of Chemical Technology, East-West Press.
2. Shreve R. N., Austin G. T. (1984), Shreve's Chemical process industries, McGraw – Hill.
3. Hamaguchi, M., Cardoso, M., & Vakkilainen, E. (2012). Alternative technologies for
biofuels production in kraft pulp mills—Potential and prospects. Energies, 5(7), 2288-
2309.
4. European Union., (2018). Technical analysis – Pulp and Paper sector (NACE C17), EU
coordinated MEthods and procedures based on Real Cases for the effective implementation
of policies and measures supporting energy efficiency in the Industry, HORIZON 2020
Project, Nr. 693845
5. Bajpai, P. (2018). Biermann's Handbook of Pulp and Paper: Volume 1: Raw Material and
Pulp Making. Elsevier.
6. Klemes, J. J. (Ed.). (2013). Handbook of process integration (PI): minimisation of energy
and water use, waste and emissions. Elsevier.
7. Zhang, W. H., Wu, J., Weng, L., Zhang, H., Zhang, J., & Wu, A. (2020). Understanding
the role of cellulose fiber on the dewaterability of simulated pulp and paper mill
sludge. Science of The Total Environment, 702, 134376.
8. Ariono, D., Aldiyana, G., Adrian, R., & Indarto, A. (2020). Fractionation of
Turpentine. MS&E, 742(1), 012029.

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