ENERGY SAVINGS THROUGH HEAT

RECOVERY SYSTEMS IN THE

PAPERMAKING

A. HAZI
1
G.HAZI
1
R.GRIGORE
1


Abstract: Nearly all the heat energy consumed in a paper mill is used for
paper drying. But there are possibilities for heat recovery in the steam-
condensate system and in the ventilation system. In this paper is presented a
method for estimation of heat recovery in these systems from view point
energy and exergy. The numerical results for a paper machine are presented,
too.

Key words: heat recovery, exergy ,steam-condensate, ventilation, system.



1
Dept. of Power Engineering, University of Bacau.
1. Introducere

The dryer section is the biggest energy
consumer in a paper machine. Roughly
80% of the energy needed in the dryer
section is brought as primary steam to the
dryer cylinders, the rest coming as drying
and leakage air and with the paper web.
The purpose of the steam and condensate
system is to provide a sufficient amount of
steam to the dryers and to handle the
condensed steam. The cylinders in a drying
section are divided in separate dryer
groups which operate at different
pressures. The blow through steam from
one dryer group at higher pressure is
reused in a group operating at lower
pressure.
The condensate recovery system includes
several steam separators and condensers.
Nearly all energy leaving the dryer
section is exhausted with the exhaust air.
About 50% of this energy can be recovered
by an efficient heat recovery system in the
ventilation. Typical applications are using
either air-to-air heat exchangers or air-to-
water heat exchangers both of plate design.
If there are heat recovery systems in
papermaking then a considerable amounts
of primary steam can be saved. This means
a lower heat specific consumption and a
lower environmental impact from steam
generation. Taking account about price of
heat and about environmental taxes, a heat
recovery means a lower price of paper.
In this paper there are presented heat
recovery systems in papermaking and a
method to estimated heat recovery in the
steam-condensate system and in the
ventilation system from view point of
energy and exergy.
The numerical results for a paper
machine are presented, finally.

2.Heat recovery systems in papermaking

The steam and condensate system is a
part of a paper machine. Past the press
section, the paper sheet has a water content
of about 60 %. The final drying is achieved
in the drying section.
There are two categories of steam-
condensate systems: cascade system and
termocompressor system, figure 1, [1].
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

2
In the cascade system, steam is admitted
into the dry-end group and allowed to
cascade through the groups toward the wet
end. Each group is allowed to discharge to
a flash tank where the flash and blow-
through steam is separated from the
condensate, and the steam passes to the
supply header of the preceding group







































The condensing of this blow-through
steam helps to develop the differential
pressure required on the group. The last
group in a series of cascading groups must
be vented to atmosphere or go to a heat
exchanger to hold differential pressure in
this group.








































Fig. 2. Heat recovery in the ventilation system: RB recovery battery; SR
recovery scrubber; HB heating battery; C compressor; V expansion valve
Fig. 1. Steam-condensate system: S1S3 separators; C condenser; T
condensate tank; SR flash steam recovered; WR warm water recovered; CD
condensate recovered
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braov Vol. 13(48) - 2006 3
The thermocompressor system allows
each group to be individually pressure-
controlled and to discharge to is own flash
tank. Blow-through and flash steam pass
from the top of the flash tank to the suction
of a thermocompressor, which is a part of
the steam supply system.
In either of the two systems, flash steam
from the separators is recovered and
reintroduced in the dryer cylinders.
The condensate recovery system consists
of the steam separators and associated
condensate pumps, condensers (heat
exchangers), a vacuum pump and
condensate tank. Hot condensate is
recovered for the steam boilers in the own
power plant.
In the ventilation part, a heat recovery
system returns part of the energy used for
evaporation back into the cycle. This
energy is used for heating fresh supply air
or/and for heating process water. This
recovery system has plate heat exchangers
or/and scrubbers, [2]. Other heat recovery
system uses heat pump where it can obtain
low-pressure steam, warm water or warm
air. Supply air for the hood is recovered
from the ceiling paper hall, too.

3. Estimation of heat recovery

For estimation of heat recovery are used
mass, heat and exergy balance equations,
heat transfer equations, relations for
calculation of different characteristics.
Thus, flash steam recovered from the
separator is calculated as, [3]:
( )
'
2
"
2
'
2 1 1 "
2
i i
i i G
G

=
q
(1)
where
"
2
G is flash steam flow, in kg/s; G
1

flow of inlet condensate, in kg/s;
1
i -
enthalpy of inlet condensate, in kJ/kg;
'
2
i -
enthalpy of outlet condensate, in kJ/kg;
"
2
i
- enthalpy of flash steam flow, in kJ/kg; q
- separator efficiency.
Heat recovery from the exhaust air is
calculated as:
( )
2 1 a a a R
i i G Q =q (2)
where Q
R
heat recovery, in kW; G
a

exhaust air flow, in kg/s; i
a1
enthalpy of
inlet air in recovery battery, in kJ/kg; i
a2

enthalpy of outlet air from the recovery
battery, in kJ/kg.
Enthalpy of air is:
( )
a a a a
x t t i + + = 2501 888 . 1 005 . 1 (3)
where t
a
is air temperature, in
0
C; x
a
- air
absolute humidity, in kg/kg.
The exergy flows were calculated using
standard method. For example, the exergy
of material is calculated with relation, [4]:
( ) | |
0 1 0 0 1
s s T i i G E = (4)
where: i
1
and s
1
are enthalpy, in kJ/kg, and
entropy, in kJ/kg
0
K, of material for
temperature T, in
0
K; i
0
and s
0
the same
but for reference temperature T
0
, in
0
K; G
material flow, in kg/s.

4. Numerical results

For a newsprint paper machine are
presented numerical results obtained after
analyzing heat recovered systems. It is
used a computer program developed by
authors which calculated heat and mass
transfer in the dryer section, mass, heat and
exergy balances, heat specific
consumption.
The newsprint paper machine has 46
dryer cylinders arranged in the 4 groups in
the cascade system. The flash steam is
recovered from 4 separators. Condensate
from the separators is cooled in the heat
exchanger and warm water obtained is
used in the technological process. Finally,
condensate is collected in the tank and is
sent to own power plant.
The ventilation system has plate heat
exchangers and recovered energy, in the
first step, for heating hood supply air
which is recovered from the ceiling
machine hall. In the second step, heat from
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

4
the exhaust air is recovered for heating
fresh supply air of the machine hall.
Mass, heat and exergy flows recovered
from the steam-condensate system and
from the ventilation system are presented
in the tables 13.
Mass flow Table 1
Mass flow kg/h %
Steam from CHP 25000 100
Steam recovered from
separators
2472 9.88
Condensate recovered 24000 96

Heat flow Table 2
Heat flow kW %
Steam from CHP 19279 100
Steam recovered from
separators
1857 9.63
Condensate recovered 2632 13.65
Warm water recovered 1062 5.5
Recovered from exhaust air 1320 6.84
Recovered air from hall 3100 16.08

Exergy flow Table 3
Exergy flow kW %
Steam from CHP 5907 100
Steam recovered from
separators
420 7.11
Condensate recovered 231 3.91
Warm water recovered 41 0.69
Recovered from exhaust air 114 1.93
Recovered air from hall 1 0.02

Note, that nearly 10% from primary
steam is recovered from separators and
almost all condensate is returned to CHP.
This means saving of chemicals for water
treatment.
Heat flow recovered from the recovered
air has the biggest weight (16.08%) but its
exergy is negligible (0.02%) because its
temperature is nearly atmospherically
temperature (this analyze was made in
summer).
The same, exergy of condensate is lower
than heat condensate because its
temperature is low.
The steam recovered from separator has
the biggest weight (7.11%).
Energy consumption in the ventilation
system can decrease through the increase
of exhaust air humidity and the decrease of
exhaust air flow, too. It can maintain
constant humidity of exhaust air through
the control of exhaust air flow.

5. Conclusion

Using of calculation method of heat that
was presented in this paper, it can
evaluation rapidly the heat recovery in
papermaking.
It can obtain important energy savings
through heat recovery in the steam-
condensate system and in the ventilation
system. For the presented example, it
results savings to 360 TJ/year that means
10770 thousand mc natural gas or 3400
thousand $/year. Calculus was made for
6000 hours/year and 10.8 tones/hour paper
production.

References

1. Hazi A., Hazi Gh.: Modelarea si
optimizarea proceselor de uscare a
hartiei si cartonului, Editura Plumb,
Bacau, 1999.
2. Kilponen L., Ahtila P., Taimisto M.:
Improvement of dryer section heat
recovery in existing paper machines
during operation, In: 1st International
Conference on Sustainable Energy
Technologies, Porto, Portugal.
3. Badea A., Necula H.: Echipamente si
instalatii termice, Editura Tehnica,
Bucuresti, 2003.
4. Gran W.: Exergetics, Mlndal,
Sweden, 1998