Pulping of highly contaminated recycled paper
This paper, by DIETRICH BERGFELD1, was presented at the 57th Appita Annual Conference in
Melbourne in May 2003.
Downloaded from search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.729778359046165. on 07/04/2023 10:11 PM AEST; UTC+10:00. © Appita : Technology, Innovation, Manufacturing, Environment , 2004.
INTRODUCTION
Greater demands are being placed on the performance of recy-
cled paper pulpers due to a significant deterioration in the
quality of recycled paper delivered to paper mills. In particu-
lar, the contamination levels in recycled paper have substan-
tially increased over the past few years.
The function of the pulper is to gently slush the recycled
paper raw material into a pumpable pulp, suitable for process-
ing in stock preparation whilst facilitating the efficient removal
of contaminants from the pulp.
The design of the pulping and detrashing equipment must
therefore satisfy a number of process requirements: Slush
down the recycled paper to individual fibres, avoiding fibre
damage and minimize fragmentation of contaminants to enable
efficient removal in the downstream cleaning and screening
processes; an efficient detrashing system for removing contam-
inants in the first stage of the stock preparation process; and
undertake ink detachment and effective blending of chemicals.
To meet these process requirements, a number of pulping
and detrashing systems have been developed and are success-
fully in operation.
LOW CONSISTENCY CONTINUOUS
PULPING
Figure 1 illustrates the situation of a pulping system without
and with a detrashing system. Without a detrashing system the
Fig. 1 Pulping with and without detrashing
Fig. 2 TwinPulpTM system
1 General Manager, Sales Overseas
Voith Paper Fiber Systems, Ravensburg/Germany
March 2004
pulper soon had to be shut for cleaning, resulting in not only
intensive cleaning work but also significant production losses.
This situation applies for all recycled paper types (OCC,
MOW, ONP, liquid packaging board etc.) when slushing at
low consistency (approx. 4-5% bone dry).
The TwinPulpTM pulping system (Fig. 2) of a modern stock
preparation line for packaging grades using OCC coming
either from local sources (LOCC) or from the US (AOCC)
consists of
• Low consistency (approx. 4-5% bone dry) continuously
operating UniPulperTM.
• Ragger for removing stringing contaminants such as strings,
wires etc. (Fig 3).
• The Junkomat (Fig. 4) for removing coarse heavy contami-
nants which otherwise would cause serious wear or even
severe damage in the following equipment.
• ContaminexTM (CM) operating as secondary pulper for gen-
tle pulp deflaking and transporting
• ContaminexTM vertical screen (CMV). This operates inter-
mittently with wash cycles to facilitate the separation of
heavy- and lightweight contaminants.
The coarse heavy particles are discharged via a junktrap.
Stock accepts are fed forward in the main process line or back
to the pulper.
Fig. 3 Ragger
Fig. 4 Junkomat
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Fig. 5 Coarse rejects
Fig. 6 Typical contaminant flow
Fig. 7 Pulping and detrashing system for relatively clean
waste
The washed light rejects are discharged to a screen drum,
the accepts return to the pulper.
All rejects are free of fibres (Fig. 5), thus helping minimize
fibre losses of the overall plant whilst also reducing rejects
disposal charges.
Existing stock preparation plants can be retrofitted with the
TwinPulpTM detrashing system, resulting in production capacity
increases of up to 25%, lower fibre losses, reduced flake contents
after pulping to below 12% and more efficient reject removal.
Measurements on existing plants have shown average contami-
nant removals of more than 75% at this early stage (Fig. 6).
HIGH CONSISTENCY BATCH PULPING
As already mentioned, pulping systems aim to slush the raw
material as completely as possible without damaging fibres
and without breaking down non-paper components.
This is particularly required in deinking plants slushing raw
90 Appita Journal
Fig. 8 Pulping and Detrashing system for highly
contaminated waste
Fig. 9 Drum screen showing light rejects
Fig. 10 Heavyweight rejects from ContaminexTM
materials such as ONP, OMG, MOW, white or coloured
ledger, etc, as well as for pulping systems for packaging paper
grades such as OCC, mixed recycled papers, liquid packaging
boards, etc.
High consistency pulping at consistencies of 12-18% bone
dry with intensive but gentle fibre- to -fibre friction maintains
the original fibre properties and minimises fragmentation of
contaminants.
With relatively clean recycled paper furnishes, slushing and
detrashing can be undertaken with the PreCleanTM I – pulping
and detrashing system (Fig. 7).
With highly contaminated recycled paper furnishes, pulping
and detrashing is carried out with the PreCleanTM II pulping
and detrashing system (Fig. 8).
The results are:
• Gentle fibre-to-fibre friction at consistencies up to 18%
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Fig. 11 Screenex dewatering unit
Fig. 12 T-Rex dewatering unit
bone dry defibers stock and minimizes size reduction of
contaminants.
• Improved stock quality thanks to gentle pulping action and
early contaminant removal.
• Highly effective blending of chemicals and raw materials.
• Fibre-to-fibre action also results in ink detachment from the
fibres.
• ContaminexTM (CMS) or Fiberizer provides additional
defibering, screening, contaminant separation and light
rejects pumping to the drum screen.
• Drum screen provides light reject screening and washing
(Fig. 9). Good fibres are flushed back pulper.
• Heavyweight rejects (Fig. 10) are discharged from the
ContaminexTM or Fiberizer into a Screenex (Fig. 11) or
T-Rex (Fig. 12) for reject dewatering.
A part from contaminant dewatering the stock is deflaked
in the bottom part of the T-Rex for recovery of useful fibres.
PreCleanTM II pulping systems are successfully in opera-
tion for deinking plants as well as for OCC preparation sys-
tems. The world’s biggest HD pulper of capacity 160 m2 has
been in operation for many years, handling OCC in the USA.
Others are operating in Japan and in Australia with the same
raw material.
An optimized helix design (Fig. 13) introduced in existing
plants has resulted in a reduction in slushing time of up to
20% as well as an increase in slushing consistency. This
represents an increase in production for a very low increase in
specific slushing energy.
Besides these advantages, a reduction in flake content (Fig. 14)
and an improvement in ink particle detachment has been observed.
March 2004
Fig. 13 Original and new helix designs
Fig. 14 Slushing results illustrated on handsheets
Fig. 15 Bale wire coiler
Before feeding the raw material into the pulper all wires
have to be removed. The wires can be automatically wound
into compact coils in a bale wire coiler (Fig. 15) and sold as
scrap metal.
HIGH CONSISTENCY CONTINUOUS
PULPING
Combining the advantages of gentle high consistency slushing
(Fig. 16) with a continuous operating process ensures not only
optimum pulping conditions but also preservation of the origi-
nal fibre properties of the furnish.
The Voith TwinDrumTM pulping and screening system
combines all these advantages including those of conventional
drum pulpers, in a completely new and successfully proven
pulping principle. We have patented this process.
The TwinDrumTM concept consists of two drums (Fig. 17)
– one for pulping and one for screening.
In a conventional drum pulper (Fig. 18) the slushing is
achieved by carrying the stock upwards and letting it fall down
in a relatively high speed rotating drum. This is not very efficient.
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Fig. 16 high consistency slushing
Fig. 17 Voith TwinDrum pulping and screening system
Fig. 18 Stock movement in a conventional drum pulper
Voith’s drum pulper (Fig. 19) consists of a drum rotating
around a D-shaped stationary displacement core. The drum
and displacement core walls form a semi-annular channel in
which the furnish is carried upwards from the collection zone
at the bottom of the pulper. Shear forces in this displacement
channel generate intensive fibre to fibre friction, ensuring
effective kneading and slushing of the furnish. The furnish
then drops over the top edge of the displacement core and
back down into the collection zone. Here, the large available
volume provides a sufficiently long dwell time. This ensures
complete wetting down and swelling of the furnish, - essential
conditions for facilitating the pulping process.
This continuous wetting, softening, kneading and fibre to
fibre friction process at consistencies up to 26% bone dry
along the length of the drum ensures gentle, yet efficient pulp-
ing of the recovered paper, without breaking down the non-
paper components, such as plastic foils, stickies, etc.
92 Appita Journal
Fig. 19 Stock movement in the Voith drum pulper
Fig. 20 Displacement principle of TwinDrumTM
The special features of the TwinDrumTM pulping and
screening system are:
• The displacement channel provides efficient upward trans-
port of the furnish at lower peripheral speeds than conven-
tional drum pulpers. This provides more intensive furnish
friction, i.e. a higher pulping energy.
• The TwinDrum’sTM displacement principle (Fig. 20)
ensures a significantly higher capacity than with conven-
tional drum pulpers. This can be up to 60% of total drum
volume. This high filling level, combined with efficient
application of pulping energy, means the TwinDrumTM
pulper is shorter in length, and thus more compact than
conventional drum pulping systems.
• By varying the amount of furnish, dwelltime in the drum can
be adjusted to suit the particular furnish whilst maintaining
the same throughput rate. The filling level is easily adjusted
via a discharge device on the pulper discharge side.
• Pulper power consumption remains virtually constant, inde-
pendent of the filling level.
• With this intensive pulping principle, even difficult furnish-
es, such as liquid packaging board or recovered brown
grades, present no problem. This has been successfully
proven in installations handling 240 t/24 h liquid packaging
board as well as OCC 1100 t/24 h.
For deinking plants this innovative displacement principle
provides highly efficient, yet gentle slushing, effective blend-
ing and mixing/reaction of deinking chemicals and optimum
ink detachment at optimum low rotational speeds of 1.5 m/sec
for the pulping drum.
For best screening efficiency the drum screen (Fig. 21) oper-
ates at a speed of 2.5 m/sec. With a controlled consistency of 4
– 8% bone dry right from the inlet, (another advantage of the
Vol 57 No 2
 separate screening drum) the whole length of the screening
drum can be effectively used for the separation of contaminants.
Even with wide variations in furnish input and consistency,
the and screening results are constantly good. The drum screen
is highly effective, with extremely low, or even no residual
fibre content at all in the drum screen rejects (Fig. 22).
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This result confirms the process advantages of this

advanced development with separate pulper and drum screen.
The importance of individual adjustment of operating parame-
ters for both drums to suit the individual operating conditions
Fig. 21 Operating principle of screen drum should not be under estimated.

SUMMARY
The paper industry nowadays is forced to recycle raw materi-
als with a constantly growing volume and variety of contami-
nants and also with recycled paper qualities not long ago con-
sidered not feasible to use.
The main factors for correct selection of efficient equip-
ment are:
• Effective slushing at low or high stock consistencies.
• Maintaining original fibre properties.
• Minimizing fragmentation of contaminants .
• Efficient removal of contaminants at a very early stage in
Fig. 22 DIP trash material the stock preparation process.

58th Appita Annual Conference

and Exhibition
Canberra Convention Centre, Canberra, Australia
19 – 21 April 2004
Incorporating the Pan Pacific Conference
Co-sponsored by:

PAPTAC Japan TAPPI Korea TAPPI TAPPIP Taiwan TAPPI TAPPI USA
Canada Philippines

The Conference will feature Themes, with corresponding interactive Forums for operating personnel.
The Themes, and their Forums, will be:

Theme: Strength Development of High-yield Pulps Forum: Refining

Theme: Environmental Balance and Sustainability

Forum: Practical Environmental Management

Theme: Modern Manufacturing Forum: Eliminating Downtime

Technical papers will be presented within the Themes and in General Sessions. Sessions will be set
aside for papers from the Pan Pacific nations.

The Exhibition will feature the latest in materials equipment and services for the pulp and paper industry

The Appita Asia Committee will host a major Symposium:

Adding Value to the paper industry

is Asia Pacific still setting the pace and will its potential be realised?

Host Company: Principal Sponsor:

For information contact:

Technical program – Ralph Coghill Exhibition and sponsorship – Pamela Richards
Appita PR Conference Consultants Pty Ltd
Suite 47, 255 Drummond Street PO Box 502
Carlton Vic 3053 Australia Kilmore, Vic, 3767, Australia
Phone: +61 3 9347 2377 Phone: +61 3 5781 0069
Fax: +61 3 9348 1206 Fax: +61 3 5781 0082
Email: admin@appita.com.au Email: enquiry@prcc.com.au

www.appita.com.au

March 2004 93