Boosting Business with Science the Human Factor Modern Bleaching
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CURRENT awaRENESS FROM THE INNVENTIA GROUP #3/2010 Modern bleaching technology free of dioxin Norwegian collaboration improving bioenergy efficiency The human factor Research Seminar 2010 N O ANSS JOH ICE R Good team crucial for climate of innovation beat O: O: T HO P Boosting business with science Modern bleaching technology free of dioxin Elisabeth Bergnor at Innventia. Five years ago, reports came Concerns and discussions are still the ECF bleached pulp contains as low from the Swedish Environmental arising, such as in the case of the Baltic amount of dioxin as the unbleached Sea1 and where completely new mills are pulp and the TCF bleached pulp. The Protection Agency (SEPA) being built. Peter was in demand as an content of dioxin is thus at the same concerning increased levels of dioxin expert in the public debate surround- background level in the unbleached as in in the water outside forest industry ing the construction of a new mill in the bleached pulps.” plants along the Baltic Sea coast Uruguay a few years ago. The investigation also studied how in Sweden. There was concern “If you bleach using chlorine dioxide the formation of dioxin is affected by the that this rise in content could have and do it the right way, no increase in ‘purity’ of the chlorine dioxide, i.e. the the content of dioxin can be detected,” content of chlorine in the chlorine diox- connection with the utilisation of he states. ide. It showed that, when the chlorine chlorine dioxide (ClO2) in bleach To verify this thesis, Innventia content reaches 5% (calculated as active plants, so called ECF Bleaching recently carried out screening studies, chlorine) or higher, which occurred with (Elemental Chlorine Free), which in which pulp samples that had been the older techniques, a formation of is currently the normally preferred bleached using different methods were dioxin starts. This is totally in line compared. with earlier investigations, where a high bleaching method. Now, a study content of chlorine showed itself to carried out at Innventia has shown be decidedly the most important cause that, with today’s modern methods, of the formation of dioxin during the there is no formation of dioxin bleaching of pulp2. during the bleaching of industrially Elisabeth emphasises, “The purity of produced softwood sulphate pulp. a chlorine dioxide solution is a prereq- uisite for dioxin-free bleaching. With today’s modern chlorine dioxide gen- erators, it’s possible to obtain a chlorine “The great dioxin alert in the mid 1980s dioxide that contains less than 0.8% started a discussion that led to bleaching elementary chlorine, calculated as active with chlorine gas (Cl2) being discon- chlorine.” tinued and mainly being replaced with CONTACT : [email protected] or ECF Bleaching. For various reasons, part [email protected] of the ECF Bleaching was abandoned in favour of TCF Bleaching (Total Chlorine The formation of dioxins increases with increased Free),” says Peter Axegård. content of elemental chlorine in the ClO2-solution. During the 1980s, Peter was actively Screening-studier utförda på contributing to the development of mod- Elisabeth Bergnor, the Project Innventia visar på att det, enligt dagens ern chlorine dioxide bleaching technolo- Manager, relates, “In the trials, we com- moderna metoder, inte sker någon gene- gy. He is now the Director of Biorefining, pared the ECF Bleaching with the TCF rering av dioxin vid ECF-blekning av a Business Area at Innventia. Bleaching of an industrially produced industriellt tillverkad barrvedssulfatmassa. “You could say that approximately unbleached oxygen delignified softwood I studierna jämfördes massaprover som 95% of the sulphate pulp in the world pulp. The chlorine dioxide solution used blekts på olika sätt; ECF-blekning jäm- today is being bleached according to had a low proportion of elemental chlo- fördes med TCF-blekning av en industri- ECF. When a new bleached pulp mill rine, as occurs in modern industrial ellt tillverkad oblekt syrgasdelignifierad massa. Den klordioxidlösning som använ- is being built, ECF Bleaching is the one chlorine dioxide processes. The results des hade, som är fallet i moderna indu- that is normally chosen.” confirmed our assumption, namely that striella klordioxidprocesser, en låg andel elementärt klor. Resultaten bekräftade 1) Following careful evaluations of a large amount of data, a 2009 report from SEPA came to the conclusion att den ECF-blekta massan innehåller lika that the main cause of the increase in values of dioxin in the Baltic Sea is airborne emissions. lite dioxiner som den oblekta massan och 2) Reference list: Dioxin formation in Pulp and Paper Mills of India (Thacker et al, 2007), Effect of dioxin den TCF-blekta massan. Dioxinhalterna reduction with ECF conversion in kraft pulp bleaching mills in Japan, (Toyota et al, 2007), A survey of är alltså på samma låga nivå i de oblekta pulp and paper mills: operating conditions and effluent quality in relation to fish reproduction, (Kovacs et och blekta massorna. al, 2009), Uruguay vs Argentina International Court of Justice; case verdict 2010, www.dioxinfacts.org – American Chemistry Council 2 | Beyond #3/2010 Current awareness from the Innventia Group The key question in the quest for efficient Kai Toven at PFI. bioenergy is how to create a perfect solution throughout the entire value chain. Every step needs to be optimized and industries need to have the best possible economy, when it comes to every single fibre used. PROFIT, a PFI project, has addressed these issues and, through extensive cooperation with scientific partners, the paper and wood industries and energy companies are now more than a year into the project, which will help the forest sector to improve its overall profitability. Norwegian collaboration improving bioenergy efficiency “The main aim is to attain profitable The owner of the project is Norske bioenergy production and improve the Skog, a paper producer. PROFIT is running from mid 2009 until quality of paper, by integrating the paper “We need to renew our business plan mid 2013. The major partners involved mill with a bioenergy production plant,” to ensure long-term profitability,” says are Norske Skog, Viken Skog, Andritz, says Kai Toven, Project Manager at PFI. Ole Petter Løbben, Business Developer Follum Energy Central, Moelven We have organized the project into three at the Norske Skog Follum Mill and Industries, Xynergo, Begna Bruk “teams”, viz. Logistics, Bioenergy and Manager of the project at Norske Skog. BioVarme, PFI and Chalmers University Paper. “We have high expectations that the of Technology. “Logistics” is focusing on solutions PROFIT project will show us how to for how the existing logistics and raw put every fibre to its optimal use and material handling systems in a paper how to make better use of our process mill can be utilised for attaining a cost- infrastructure in finding new profitable efficient system for an integrated paper business opportunities.” I det PFI-ledda projektet and bioenergy production. This part of Berit Rødseth, the Project Manager PROFIT samlas forskning, pappers- och PROFIT necessitates cooperation among at Moelven, a major wood company, träindustri samt energiföretag för att a wide spectrum of partners. stresses that every single step in the tillsammans finna en integrerad lösning “Bioenergy” is focusing on technology value chain must be operating at maxi- som både leder till lönsam bioenergipro- for the energy densification of biomass mum efficiency in order to generate duktion och förbättrad papperskvalitet. and for a process integration of paper profitability. Projektet är indelat i tre avdelningar: mills and bioenergy plants. In the short “Moelven has been involved in bioen- Logistics, Bioenergy och Paper. term, the objective is to establish the ergy production in Sweden since the Inom Logistics studeras hur varje steg i de befintliga systemen kan optimeras för potential for a plant producing pellets 1990s. We want to bring our knowledge en effektiv integration av pappers- och with superior energy density. In the long and know-how to the PROFIT project. bioenergiproduktion. Målet för Bioenergy term, the aim is to build a bioenergy Unfortunately, Norway has unpredict- är att skapa potential för produktion av plant for biodiesel. able conditions when it comes to govern- pellets med högre energidensitet. Paper “Paper” is focusing on technology for mental support of bioenergy, compared handlar om optimerad fiberseparering. the separation and handling of fibres in to Sweden, which makes the financial Projektet ägs av Norske Skog men invol- the production of both bioenergy and outcome of PROFIT less easy to pre- verar ett stort antal företag och organi- paper production, in order to ensure dict.” sationer. that each production line receives the CONTACT : [email protected] right fibres. Current awareness from the Innventia Group Beyond #3/2010 | 3 This year’s Seminar was based on the following concepts: Being Pro-active, Return on Investment, Timing and Opportunities. A new idea was tried out on the first day, with short pres- entations on five innovative areas at Innventia. Following each presentation, those attending were given the opportu- nity to discuss and reflect on what they had heard in ‘beehive’ groups. The day Research Seminar ended with a question time and a panel 20–21 September, 2010 discussion with the presenters. The aim of this was to give full rein to the par- The annual Innventia Research Seminar ticipants’ creativity. The second day was for Partner Customers more traditional, with three parallel sessions, in which new exciting results were presented from cluster research and collaborative projects, with a display of posters during the breaks. CONTACT : [email protected] What ideas are you taking away with you? Paulo Pavan, Fibria Helena Thunberg, Korsnäs Badri Mahmoud, Stora Enso “I was especially interested in the “I thought it was very interesting to “Above all, I found the presentations business models.