PULP AND PAPER

INDUSTRIES
 Introduction
• Cellulose:
– substance used to make paper products
in the pulp and paper industries
– most abundant organic substance
available
– Major component of woody plants

• Papermaking consumes many chemicals

and utilize huge energy consumption
 History Of Paper Making
• 1st appeared between 2500 and 2000 B.C, made
from tall reed called papyrus
• Chinese invented paper from bamboo and
cotton
• Europeans make paper from cotton and linen
rags
• Watt & Burgess (1851): Soda process for
making pulp from wood
• Tilghman (1857): Sulphite process produced
good, readily bleachable pulp
• Dahl (1884): Kraft process or Sulfate process
 Pulp manufacture
• Cellulose fibers freed from matrix of lignin
which cements them together
• Fibers separated by mechanical procedures
or solution of lignin
• Pulp formed has fibers recemented together
to form paper when suitable additives used
• Pulping made from mechanical or
thermomechanical means less inferior in
quality compared to produced chemically
 Raw materials
• Wood fibers displaced cotton and linen rags
• Both hard (deciduous) and soft (coniferous)
wood used but softwood preferred because
longer fibers
• Bark cannot be used because not fibrous
and difficult to bleach
• Bark removed by debarking methods
 Pulping processes
• Objective – to release fibrous cellulose from its
surrounding lignin while keeping the hemicelluloses and
celluloses intact
• Fibers obtained naturally colored & must be bleached
before used to obtain good color without degradation
and yield loss
• Many processes and variations of basic processes to
make pulp from wood
• Some work better on softwood than hardwood, some
give high-yield lower quality papers, some give low-yield
superior papers
• Major processes are sulfate or kraft process,
groundwood and thermomechanical process,
semichemical process, and sulfite process
 Kraft/Sulfate pulping
• Alkaline process by which most pulp is made
• Material added to cooking liquor is Na2SO4
• Cooking done with solution: Na2S, NaOH and
Na2CO3
• Chemicals can be recycled and regenerated,
reducing or even eliminating stream pollution
• Odoriferous materials released drg cooking are
strong air polluters and diff. to control
• Drg. Last 10 yrs, employ continuous digesters
although large batch units still being built
• Batch units offer good control, but
continuous units require less investment
for a given capacity and pollution control
installation simpler and smaller
• Cooking process causes chemical
reactions involving hydrolysis and
solubilization of lignin, freeing cellulose
fibers
• Hydrolysis frees mercaptans and organic
sulfides – source of foul odor associated
with kraft mills
 Sequence of sulfate pulp manufacture
• Logs cut to convenient lengths & debarked,
conveyed to chippers
• Chippers reduce wood to chips of preselected size
• Chips screened to separate oversize chips, desired
product and sawdust
• Oversized chips recycled to reduce to proper size
• Chips enter continuous digester, presteamed @ 100
kPa, pass thru’ HP zone @ 900 kPA, temperature
adjusted and mix with cooking liquor
• Cooking time - 1½ hrs @ 170oC
• Cold cooking liquor quickly stops cooking reaction
• Brown stock : chips produced together with
adhering liquor
• Pulp washing : operation to reduce water usage
and reclaim process
• Black liquor - spent cooking liquor treated to
recover chemical content for reuse and organic
content as heat
• Washed pulp passed over screens to remove
knots, unreacted chips, slivers trash, etc and
sent to thickeners and filters
• Thickened pulp is bleached usg. Chlorine and
hypochlorite
• Then pulp washed and rethickened for making
coarse sheets dry enough to fold into bundle,
store and ship or used directly for making paper
 Manufacture of paper
• Wet process
- Pulp stock for formation into paper by 2 general
processes : beating and refining
- No sharp distinction between these two operations
- Mills use either one or the other alone or both
together
- Beater decreasing importance with increasing use of
continuous refining
- Typical beater (also called Hollander, Fig. 33.3)
consists of wooden or metal tank having rounded
ends and partition part way down the middle,
providing channel around which pulp circulates
continuously
- Beating fibers makes paper stronger, more
uniform, more dense, more opaque and less
porous
- Bonding between fibers increased by beating
- Most mills use conical refiner or Jordan engine
(Fig. 33.4 & 33.5)
- Pulp is deformed, defibered & dispersed but not
cut by device
- Besides fiber, paper contains fillers, sizes and
dyes which are added drg refining process
- Various types of pulps are blended to give
desired properties, then filler and color added to
mixture and beaten to uniformity
- Alum added to coat fibers and coagulate
materials present
- All papers except absorbent ones (tissues,
toweling, filter) require filler to give smoother
surface, more brilliant whiteness, improved
smoothness and printability and improved
opacity
- Fillers : finely ground inorganic materials eg.
Talc or special clays or titanium oxidel
precipitated calcium carbonate or certain silico-
aluminates
- Sizing : to improve resistance to penetration by
liquids
- Sizing agent : rosin soap made from tall oil, wax
emulsions also used
• Dry process
- Interest in dry process due to cost and
complexity of drying equipment and
enormous process-water demands of
conventional methods
- Pilot plant built to make paper by dry
process but technical problems still
unresolved