Development and Implementation of an Online Kraft Black Liquor Viscosity Soft Sensor
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Development and Implementation of an Online Kraft Black Liquor Viscosity Soft Sensor A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Process Engineering Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch New Zealand Sunday Boladale Alabi December, 2010 ABSTRACT The recovery and recycling of the spent chemicals from the kraft pulping process are economically and environmentally essential in an integrated kraft pulp and paper mill. The recovery process can be optimised by firing high-solids black liquor in the recovery boiler. Unfortunately, due to a corresponding increase in the liquor viscosity, in many mills, black liquor is fired at reduced solids concentration to avoid possible rheological problems. Online measurement, monitoring and control of the liquor viscosity are deemed essential for the recovery boiler optimization. However, in most mills, including those in New Zealand, black liquor viscosity is not routinely measured. Four batches of black liquors having solids concentrations ranging between 47 % and 70 % and different residual alkali (RA) contents were obtained from Carter Holt Harvey Pulp and Paper (CHHP&P), Kinleith mill, New Zealand. Weak black liquor samples were obtained by diluting the concentrated samples with deionised water. The viscosities of the samples at solids concentrations ranging from 0 to 70 % were measured using open-cup rotational viscometers at temperatures ranging from 0 to 115 oC and shear rates between 10 and 2000 s -1. The effect of post-pulping process, liquor heat treatment (LHT) on the liquors’ viscosities was investigated in an autoclave at a temperature >=180 oC for at least 15 mins. The samples exhibit both Newtonian and non-Newtonian behaviours depending on temperature and solids concentration; the onsets of these behaviours are liquor-dependent. In conformity with the literature data, at high solids concentrations (> 50 %) and low temperatures, they exhibit shear-thinning behaviour with or without thixotropy but the shear-thinning/thixotropic characteristics disappear at high temperatures (>= 80 oC). Generally, when the apparent viscosities of the liquors are <= ~1000 cP, the liquors show a Newtonian or a near-Newtonian behaviour. These findings demonstrate that New Zealand black liquors can be safely treated as Newtonian fluids under industrial conditions. Further observations show that at low solids concentrations (< 50 %), viscosity is fairly independent of the RA content; however at solids concentrations > 50 %, viscosity decreases with increasing RA content of the liquor. This shows that the RA content of black liquor can be manipulated to control the viscosity of high-solids black liquors. The LHT process had negligible effect on the low-solids liquor viscosity ii but led to a significant and permanent reduction of the high-solids liquor viscosity by a factor of at least 6. Therefore, the incorporation of a LHT process into an existing kraft recovery process can help to obtain the benefits of high-solids liquor firing without a concern for the attending rheological problems. A variety of the existing and proposed viscosity models using the traditional regression modelling tools and an artificial neural network (ANN) paradigm were obtained under different constraints. Hitherto, the existing models rely on the traditional regression tools and they were mostly applicable to limited ranges of process conditions. On the one hand, composition-dependent models were obtained as a direct function of solids concentration and temperature, or solids concentration, temperature and shear rate; the relationships between these variables and the liquor viscosity are straight forward. The ANN-based models developed in this work were found to be superior to the traditional models in terms of accuracy, generalization capability and their applicability to a wide range of process conditions. If the parameters of the resulting ANN models can be successfully correlated with the liquor composition, the models would be suitable for online application. Unfortunately, black liquor viscosity depends on its composition in a complex manner; the direct correlation of its model parameters with the liquor composition is not yet a straight forward issue. On the other hand, for the first time in the Australasia, the limitations of the composition- dependent models were addressed using centrifugal pump performance parameters, which are easy to measure online. A variety of centrifugal pump-based models were developed based on the estimated data obtained via the Hydraulic Institute viscosity correction method. This is opposed to the traditional approaches, which depend largely on actual experimental data that could be difficult and expensive to obtain. The resulting age- independent centrifugal pump-based model was implemented online as a black liquor viscosity soft sensor at the number 5 recovery boiler at the CHHP&P, Kinleith mill, New Zealand where its performance was evaluated. The results confirm its ability to effectively account for variations in the liquor composition. Furthermore, it was able to give robust viscosity estimates in the presence of the changing pump’s operating point. Therefore, it is concluded that this study opens a new and an effective way for kraft black liquor viscosity sensor development. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the grace of God and the support of kind people around me. Above all, I am grateful to the Almighty God who created me with the ability to think rationally. Without this, it will be impossible to be a researcher. I am also grateful to Him for keeping me alive as only the living can do a research. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my senior supervisor, Dr. Christopher (Chris) John Williamson for his guidance, encouragement and support throughout the period of this study. He was always willing to share his thoughts with me. His invaluable advice and constructive remarks, emanating from his rich research experience, contributed immensely to the success of this study. I consider myself fortunate to have someone like him as my supervisor. This project exists because of the vision of Mr. John Lee, former co-supervisor of this thesis. I am grateful to him for granting me the opportunity to capitalize on this vision to actualize my PhD ambition and for all the technical and moral supports he provided me. To Mr. Eric Fenton, I say many thanks for willingly taking over the role of the co-supervisor when you discovered that I was without an industry mentor following the exit of Mr. Lee from Carter Holt Harvey Pulp and Paper (CHHP&P), Kinleith mill. I appreciate all your encouragement and the effort you made to see that I have access to all technical supports I needed. Despite your tight official schedules as the steam and recovery (S&R) technical group manager at the Kinleith mill, you always found time to discuss this project and provided helpful suggestions. These are deeply appreciated. Without your support and that of Chris Beck, S&R area manager, the proposal that gained funding from CHHP&P, Kinleith for this work after the government funding ran out would not have been possible. Thank you so much. It would have been next to impossible to embark on this study without the generous funding provided by the following New Zealand establishments-Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, CHHP&P (Kinleith), and the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering (CAPE), University of Canterbury. I owe my profound gratitude to you all. I am also very grateful to the management of CHHP&P, for granting me access to the use of their Kinleith mill facilities and for providing numerous technical supports. All the black liquor samples used in this study were obtained from the Kinleith mill. iv The assistances rendered by the academic and non-academic staff of CAPE are greatly appreciated. In particular, I say thank you to Associate Prof. Ken Morrison for his assistance with the use of CAPE’s Haake viscometer. Thank you Trevor Berry for your assistances with different laboratory methods and the instruments I used for this work. Technical supports received from Frank Weerts of the mechanical workshop and, Bob Gordon and Tim Moore of the electrical and electronics workshop contributed to the success of this study. Thank you all for being there for me. My relationship with the CHHP&P (Kinleith mill) personnel of different skills and expertises enriched my learning and professional skills. Without the cooperation of these personnel, this thesis would not have been possible. Thank you: Nadheim Hamadi (now in CHHP&P, Tasman mill), for the helpful discussions we had on pump viscometry; Amoon Habib, for sharing your ideas with me on the workings of variable speed drives and electric motors; Russell Clarke, for your assistance with DCS implementation of the black liquor viscosity soft sensor and useful discussions we had on electric motors; Catherine Empson, for your assistance with MOPS™; Tahi Bidois, for sharing your experiences with me on the number 5 recovery boiler operations; Steven Hope, for the helpful discussions we had on residual alkali content of black liquor; and Graham Ross, for your assistance with Kinleith mil information retrieval system. The full time study leave granted me by my employer, the University of Uyo, Nigeria enabled me to focus on this study. For this I am extremely grateful. My beautiful wife, Shalom, I can not thank you enough for your understanding, patience and prayers throughout the duration of this study. Without your sacrificial supports, reaching here would be impossible. To my precious little daughter, Etooluwa (the Lord’s project) I dedicate this project. Your learning processes as you grow gave me better appreciation of the power of artificial neural networks in the real life applications. I am persuaded that you will grow up to be inspired by this thesis. To all others- family members, friends, and colleagues, who have contributed in one way or the other to the success of this thesis, I say thank you.