Review on Different types of

experimental and industrial Reactors

for Biomass Fractionation and Pulping
application
BIOMASS FRACTIONATION

The pulping digester is the most important piece of equipment in the production of chemical
paper pulp. Digesters are mostly used to digest raw ingredients for paper (such as wood, grass,
rags, etc.). Paper pulp materials react with the cook agent in the digester to form paper pulp,
which is mostly cellulose. Pulping refers to any process by which wood (or any other fibrous raw
material) is reduced to a fibrous mass. Basically it is the means by which the bonds are
systematically ruptured within the wood structure. The task can be accomplished mechanically,
thermally, chemically, or by combination of any of these treatments.

Chemical paper pulping equipment differs due to variances in chemical pulping technologies,
fiber source materials, and paper industry production scales. Chemical paper pulp cooking
equipment is classified into two types based on the operation process: batch cooking
production line and continuous digester. Quality pulp can be produced using either batch or
continuous equipment, and the proper choice will depend on consideration of all relevant
factors.

The auxiliary equipment associated with continuous digesters is more complex than that
required by conventional batch digesters. One pulping line will usually depend on a single.
Continuous digester or several batch digesters. If one batch unit is taken out of operation for
any reason, the production rate is only curtailed: but if a continuous digester is down, the
entire production is lost. Therefore, production availability normally favors the batch digester.
Also, when frequent changes in wood furnish or degree of cooking are required, the batch
digesters are more flexible. Generally, startups and shutdowns are easier for batch digesters.

Steam consumption for continuous digesters is much lower than for batch units because low
pressure flash steam from the liquor can be recycled to preheat and precondition chips. Steam
demand is also more constant for continuous digesters, although fluctuation in demand from
batch units can be reduced with computer control. The sizing of the power boiler is affected by
both average demand and peak demand.

Advantages: Batch VS Continuous Digesters.

Factors Favoring Continuous Digesters:

1. Lower steam requirement (less energy).

2. More constant steam demand.

3. More compact; less space requirement.

4. Lower capacity of ancillary components because of constant loading (e.g. chip conveyor, heat
recovery system).

5. Easier treatment of non-condensable because of uniform flow.

6. Includes diffusion washing stage (Kamyr only).

7. Adaptable for digestion of all wood subdivisions.

Factors Favoring Batch Digesters

1. More reliable operation.

2. Greater operating flexibility.

 ability to change grades

 ability to cook softwood and hardwood concurrently
 ease of start-up and shut-down

3. More efficient turpentine recovery.

BATCH DIGESTER
Several different types of pressure vessels have been used for batch cooking over the years,
including stationary horizontal and spherical configurations and rotating vertical digesters.

1. VERTICAL BATCH DIGESTER

Fig 1: Vertical batch digester

Screened chips are charged (usually from a transfer belt) into the top of the digester. The
volumes of white liquor and black liquor required for the targets alkali-to-wood and liquor-to-
wood ratios respectively, are then metered simultaneously into the digester. Some method of
chip packing is usually employed to achieve maximum fill Steam chip spreaders such as
illustrated in Figure 1) and 2 are capable of packing 20% more chips in the digester than would
be achieved by al file Liquor filling and recirculation during chip charging is another method of
packing Direct steam injection at the bottom of the digester to shake the chip mass is also used
for this purpose. These latter methods may give a 5-10% packing improvement.

When the digester is fully charged with chips and liquor, it is capped. Most batch units are now
equipped with some type of automatic capping device, the most popular type being a
remotely operated ball valve.

The modern batch digester utilizes a circulation system with an external liquor heater for
bringing the contents to pulping temperature. The circulating pump is usually sized to tum over
the liquid contents of the digester about once every ten minutes. The loaded digester is
brought to maximum temperature according to a preset rate (traditionally controlled by a
clock-driven cam). It is then maintained at maximum temperature until the required H-factor
has been reached. At that point, the remotely controlled blow valve at the bottom of the vessel
is opened, and the contents are discharged under full digester pressure into the blow tank. As
the cooked chip mass impacts on the tangential entry of the blow tank, the chips are
disintegrated into fibers. A baffle and vapor space within the blow tank ensure good separation
of stock and minimum entrainment of liquor with the flash steam. The flash steam along with
organic vapors is usually carried into an accumulator heat recovery system. Typically, the time
cycle for each cook is the same, so that a staggered sequence of digester blowing and filling can
be maintained for all the batch units. The auxiliary equipment associated with vertical batch
digester is steam packer, Level controls, air evacuation header, free water header, etc. Batch
digesters used for small scale and less capacity plants.

Fig 2b: Vertical batch digester with auxiliary diagram

2) ROTARY SPHERICAL DIGESTER

The steamed ball is a kind of rotary batch cooking equipment. It is spherical, mainly composed
of sphere, machine seat, transmission device etc. The spheres are welded or riveted by steel
plates. The position of the center line of the center of the ball is to open the filling hole for
filling and feeding the cooking liquid. Steam and drain condensate from the hollow shaft
through the steam heating. Steaming ball has the advantage of raw materials with liquid can be
fully mixed, the quality of the pulp is evener, low liquid ratio, solution concentration is higher,
can shorten the cooking time, simple equipment, less investment, easy to maintain and
management. The disadvantage is that the area is large, direct steam, and the concentration of
liquid medicine changes greatly. In separating inorganic material from compostable organics, a
rotary digester that processes municipal solid waste, source segregated or mixed, followed by a
trammel screen, has an advantage over alternative technologies.

Fig. 3a Rotary spherical rotary digester Fig. 3b Schematic diagram of spherical rotary

The inside of the digester drum undergoes a combination of physical, biological, and chemical
deterioration. Depending on the length of detention, which can range from six hours to ten
days, a considerable reduction in particle size occurs. Paper, cardboard, food, bio solids, animal
manure, and yard trimmings are common feedstocks that are converted into raw compost in
two to three days. When the material is discharged, it passes through a one- to two-inch screen
aperture. Plastic bags, metal, wood, and a percentage of glass, on the other hand, are not
reduced to particle sizes smaller than one to two inches and can be screened from the organic
fraction once the digester is discharged. Auxiliary equipment includes Circulating pump, Liquid
medicine circulating heater, Waste heat recovery equipment and blow tank. The rotary
spherical digester is mainly used for the soda pulping process or sulfate pulping process in the
small paper mill and for pulping agricultural waste.
CONTINUOUS DIGESTER
The earliest design of continuous digester utilized a heated, pressurized chamber into which
chips and chemicals were fed; then the mixture was carried through a series of tubes to provide
retention time for the pulping reactions. Digesters of this type are still in service for producing
semi chemical pulps and for alkaline pulping of small wood subdivisions.

1. KAMYR CONTINOUS DIGESTER

By far the most widely utilized continuous digester is the vertical downflow type developed by
Kamyr. The first commercial installation was made in 1950. Approximately 350 units had been
installed by 1990. Perhaps the most common Kamyr system, dating. from the late 1960's and
early 1970's. The digester itself is a 60-70 m tall cylinder with increasing diameter from top to
bottom typical capacity is about 1000 tons per day of pulp (oven-dry basis). Liquor circulation
plays a dominant role in the system's operation.

Fig. 4 Kamyr continuous digester

The wood chips are fed from a surge bits through a volumetric chip meter and a rotary low-
pressures feeder into the steaming vessel. A slowly turning screw carries the chips through the
horizontal steaming vessel where steam at 15 psig (mostly) flashed from the residual liquor)
preheats the chips i and drives off air and non-condensibles. The chips then fall into a chute
connected to the high-pressure feeder. This feeder consists of a single rotating element having
a series of staggered pockets. Each pocket picks up chips while in the vertical orientation, and
when the element has moved 90 to the horizontal, the chips are sluiced away with cooking
liquor and carried up to the digester inlet Here, the slurry enters a cylindrical separator;
perforations in the plate allow liquor to flow to the surrounding collection ring and be returned
to the feeder, while the chips are pushed downward by a rotating helical screw When the chips
enter the digester itself, they have absorbed sufficient alkali to enable them to move downward
by gravity through the liquor-filled space at the top of the vessel, until they settle atop the chip
mass A hydraulic pressure of 165 psig is maintained on the liquid column by regulating the
flows of white and black liquor to the digester. A high internal pressure is required to eliminate
flashing and boiling of the liquid within the different temperature zones.

Fig. 5 PFD of Kamyr continuous digester

The chip mass moves downward as uniform column without channeling (ie."plug flow"). The
first zone at the top of the digester allows the chips to impregnate for about 45 minutes at
temperatures from 105 to 130°C. In the heating zone, the temperature is raised in two steps by
extracting liquor from the periphery of the vessel, pumping it through external heat
exchangers, and returning the liquor to the digester through center pipes. Once the mass is up
to temperature, the third zone provides sufficient retention time for the pulping reactions to be
completed. Due to the exothermic character of the pulping reactions, the maximum
temperature is actually about 2°C higher than that provided by external heating. The pulping
reaction is stopped by extracting the hot residual liquor through screens at the periphery into a
flash tank that supplies steam to the steaming vessel. The hot liquor is displaced by upward
flowing "wash liquor" (usually brown stock washer filtrate which is injected near the bottom of
the vessel and moves countercurrent to the chip flow to provide "diffusion washing". The
digester is usually provided with sufficient height between the wash liquor inlet and extraction
screens to allow at least 1.5 hours for the residual liquor to diffuse out of the chips.

At the bottom, pulp is continuously slushed front the column of cooled, softened chips by
slowly rotating paddles that are mounted on radial arms attached to the hub of the outlet
device. The diluted pulp stock, which is under about 200 psig of pressure at this point, is then
blown at a controlled rate, often: to an atmospheric tank. The blow line typically utilizes a
control valve on either side of a small pressure vessel with a variable orifice, so that there are
three controlled stages of pressure drop.

The production rate for the Kamyr digester is set by the rotational speed of the volumetric chip
meter. All other flow rates must be adjusted correspondingly for changes in the chip feed rate
the flow rate at the bottom of the digester is attenuated by changes in chip level at the top of
the digester. The retention time in each zone of the digester is dependent on the production
rate and the degree of packing the degree of packing is defined as the ratio of chip volumes
(for a specific amount of chips) in the chip meter to that in another zone of the digester. The
packing is different in the impregnation, cooking and washing zones, and varies with wood
species, degree of delignification and height of digester. Kamyr continuousdigesters finds
application in most industrial pulping plants.

2. MODIFIED CONTINUOUS COOKING

Although the basic operating principle of the Kamyr hydraulic digester has not changed since
the initial development, a number of improvements and modifications have evolved over the
last forty years. Some of the more significant developments were the following:

1) Conversion from hot blow to cold blow to conserve pulp quality (1958).

2) Inclusion of the diffusion washing stage (1962).

3) Development of a vapor phase digester for sulfite and prehydrolyzed kraft production (1967).
This unit initially utilized an external inclined separator to discharge only chips into the top of
the digester. Heating was by direct addition of steam at the top of the digester.

4) Modification of the chip chute and addition of in-line drainer (1968).

5) Development of a two vessel system employing a hydraulic impregnation vessel followed by

a vapor phase digester (1972). In this system, the external inclined separator was replaced with
an inverted internal separator.

6) Atmospheric pre-steaming of the chips in a special-design chip bin to optimize chip steaming
and reduce the amount of fresh steam required in the steaming vessel (1947).

7) Development of a two-vessel system employing a hydraulic impregnation vessel followed by

a hydraulic digester (1979). This system is generally considered to be an improvement over the
previous two-vessel system, and most of the high-tonnage systems installed during the 1980's
have been of this type.

8) Application of extended delignification to the Kamyr system (1984). The process is referred
to by Kamyr as "Modified Continuous Cooking". A detailed explanation of the process is given in
the next section.

Fig. 6 Modified continuous cooking with Kamyr digester

Research at the Swedish Forest Products: Laboratory (STFI) and the Royal Institute of
Technology, both in Stockholm, led to the development of Kamyr's Modified Continuous
Cooking (MCC) system. The process is characterized by low initial concentrations of alkali and
by low concentrations of lignin and sodium ions at the end of the cook. Although the main
objective is to cook to lower kappa number levels, the process also produces a pulp with
significantly higher strength properties (3) Figure 8-14 shows how a two-vessel system is
adapted for MCC operation. The normal process is altered in three ways:
 White liquor is added at three different points in the process.

 A liquor recirculation line is installed around the impregnation vessel.

 The final stage of the cook is carried out in a countercurrent mode.

REFERENCES:

1. Gary. A. Smook, Handbook for Pulp & Paper Technologists (1992) Angus Wilde Publications,
second edition.
2. J.P. Casey, Pulp and Paper Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Wiley Interscience (1983).
3. R.G. MacDonald, Pulp and Paper Manufacture, McGraw Hill (1969)
4. P. Bajpai and P.K. Bajpai, Biotechnology in the Pulp and Paper Industry, PIRA International
(1998).