13

Pulp and paper

manufacture
J. M. Uprichard and J. C. F Walker

Pulp and paper industries are capital intensive and benefit from eco-
nomies of scale. The vast majority of paper products are made from
cellulose fibres, the aggregate of fibres being known as pulps. Chemical
pulp mills typically operate at tonnages of 1000 tonnes per day, while a
modern newsprint machine will produce 600 tonnes per day.
World pulp production statistics are summarized in Table 13.1. There
are three main categories, mechanical, semi-chemical and chemical pulp,
the classification being based upon the process used for fibre separation.
The major products are mechanical and chemical pulps, with most of the
latter being manufactured by the kraft process.
The term pulping is used to describe the various processes by which
wood is reduced to its component fibres, or to a mixture of fibre and

Table 13.1 World production of wood and non-wood fibre pulp, millions of
metric tonnes at 10% moisture content (after FAO. 1991)

Year' 1969 1979 1989

Mechanical pulps 233 259 35.3

Semi-chemical pulps 7.2 8.2 7.8
Full chemical pulps 63.0 844 1061
DissolVing pulps 4.9 48 45
Non-wood fibre pulps 56 7.4 12.6
Total. all pulps 1039 130.7 166.3
ChemIcal pulps
Unbleached sulphite 6.8 5.9 5.5
Bleached sulphite 5.9 5.0 4.9
Unbleached sulphate/kraft 27.0 339 36.5
Bleached sulphate/kraft 22.3 38.1 57.1
DissolVing. aCid bisulphlte and 49 4.8 4.5
prehydrolysis kraft

J. C. F. Walker et al., Primary Wood Processing

© J.C.F. Walker 1993
482 Pulp and paper manufacture

fibre debris. Papermaking, although technically complex, is simple in

principle. Paper is made by spreading a layer of pulp fibres in suspen-
sion on the surface of a moving wire (mesh) screen so as to form a wet
paper web, which after pressing to remove water and consolidate the
fibre mat, is dried to form paper.
Both pulping and papermaking are energy intensive processes.
Mechanical pulp production requires large amounts of electrical energy.
Chemical pulping processes on the other hand use principally thermal
energy and chemicals. Semi-chemical pulps are intermediate in their
requirements.
Large quantities of water are used by the pulp industry, and also in
the process of papermaking, and because of this the industry has a large
impact on the environment. In modern pulp and paper mills much of the
water used in process flows is continuously recycled. This trend is bound
to increase in the future because of environmental pressures.
There is a good correlation between the per capita consumption of
paper and GNP (Smook, 1982) and, despite the advent of computers and
the promise of a paperless society, the demand for paper products con-
tinues to increase as economies develop, with per capita consumption
reaching 300 kg per annum in the United States. Wood is the chief source
of papermaking fibres, with much coming from the residue arising from
the timber industry (Fig. 14.1). The use of agricultural fibres remains small
(c. 8% of pulp production). Today increased use is made of waste paper.
The limits to its use are not clearly defined but appear to be about 50% of
consumption, a level already reached in Japan. The reuse of waste paper is
limited by the ease and cost of collection and by the number of times
fibres can be recycled (about eight times on the basis of current techno-
logy). In practice large cities are the most viable sources of waste paper.
The range of paper and paperboard grades is a matter of common
experience in daily life. Indeed, one of the difficulties in describing
paper products is their range and versatility. In this review it is possible
to indicate only the broad differences between them. Papers vary from
products with a fairly short life such as newsprint, which is principally
made from mechanical pulp, to high quality legal documents, which
may require special fibre types. All paper and paperboard grades have
their particular requirements. High quality printing papers require a
smooth surface for printing. They may be coated or uncoated. These
papers also need to be strong if they are to be printed on high speed
presses without frequent breaks. Papers used for packaging, for
example linerboard, must be strong and smoothness is less important.
Linerboard, which is a paper of high basis weight in the range
150-250 g m-2, is two-layered and was traditionally manufactured from
unbleached kraft pulp but now includes some waste paper or a mix of
pulps in its furnish.