Mech 450 – Pulping and Papermaking

Topic 3 – Mechanical Pulping

James A. Olson

Pulp and Paper Centre, Department of Mechanical

Engineering, University of British Columbia

Mechanical Pulping

 Comparison of Mechanical and Chemical Pulps

 Debarking

 Stone Groundwood

 Refiner Mechanical Pulp

 Thermo mechanical pulping (TMP)

 Chemi thermo mechanical pulping (CTMP)

 Brightening

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Mechanical Pulping

 Fibres mechanically removed from wood matrix

Chemical Pulping

 Lignin holding fibres together is dissolved

Lignin

Fibres

 In addition to fibre removal, fibres are broken and fines (fibres <
0.5mm) are created

 About 1/3 of pulp mass is in form of fines

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  In contrast, chemical pulping produces intact fibres

General Parameters

Chemical Mechanical

Yield Fibre/Wood - Low 40-70% - High 90-98%

Cellulose Purity - High - lignin - Low - lignin

dissolved remains

End Uses - Dissolving pulp - Low quality

- High quality paper - High volume
paper
(e.g. book) (e.g. newsprint)
- Reinforcement pkg. - Molded products

Raw Material Sensitivity - Low - High

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 Quality Parameters
Chemical Mechanical

Strength - High - fibres intact - Low - fibres damaged

Bulk - Low - more and - High - few and less

flexible fibres flexible fibres

Optical - Dark but bleachable - Bright but hard

- Poor light scattering to bleach high
- Good light scattering

Drainability - Good - long fibres, - Poor - short fibres,

few fines many fines

Permanence - Good - Poor (optical)

Cost Parameters
Chemical Mechanical

Raw Material - High - low yield - Low - high yield

Capital - High - Low

Operating - High - Low - becoming

(chemicals, energy etc) lower - high for
electrical energy

Auxiliary - High - Low - for slush pulp

(pollution recovery etc)
Mechanical pulps are
generally used for
short-life, inexpensive
products, e.g. newsprint

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 History
 Pre-mid 1800’s paper made of
rags.
 1841, Friedrick Keller “inventor”
 1848 Johan Voith in Heidenheim
made first commercial grinder.
 1859 Voith developed “Raffineur”
to break up any course material not
properly ground. First success.
 1867 Full plant powered by steam.
Paper made with 70% wood
(Worlds fair Paris)
 1868 Tampella (finish company)
started making grinders.

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Debarking Drum

Ring Debarking

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Debarking resistance

 Factors:

Debarking resistance N/cm^2

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 Species

 Moisture content

 Felling season

 Storage duration
4
 Temperature
0
Jan May Sept Dec

Stone Groundwood (SGW)

 Pulp produced by pressing

logs against rotating
grindstone

 Unchanged for 150 years.

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 Action of grinder
 Circumferential speed 30 m/s
 Grinding pressure 250kPa
 Grits deform fibre-lignin matrix
 Repeated visco-elastic deformation
creates heat
 Increased heat in wood
 Heat softens lignin that’s found in
between fibres and helps to release
the fibres

Action of grinder

 Fibres are peeled back in layers

 Grits pass over partially removed

fibres

 Develops surface and flexibility of

fibres … paper strength.

 Fibres are released

 Next layer peeled off

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Operating Parameters

 Species and property of wood

 Amount of spray water

 Temperature of spray water

 Rate of wood feed

 Pressure applied

 Speed of grinder

 Structure of stone

Pulp Constituents

 Shives: fibre bundles (3%)

 Long, intact fibres (20%)

 Short, broken fibres (35%)

 Fines (45%)
 Flour 30x30

 Fibrils 30x1

 Dust 1x1

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Pulp Properties

 Higher strength as
more energy applied

 CSF drops 150-50 ml

as energy applied

 Brightest of
unbleached pulps up
to 65 ISO

Stone Sharpening

 Stones wear due to constant high-

speed abrasion

 Ceramic stones

 Sharpening every 6-14 days

 Sharpness affects energy and

production

grits

2.5mm

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 Continuous Grinding

Pressure Ground Wood (PGW)

 Higher pressure leads to

higher temperatures

 Softer lignin, easier to detach

whole fibres

 Stronger pulp

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Example
 The quality of the pulp produced during grinding is dependent on the
temperature in the grinding zone. Fibre can be liberated largely intact if
the lignin has been softened by temperature, however, if the temperature
is too low the fibres will be largely broken or if the temperature is too high
the wood will start to darken.
 Since virtually all of the grinding power is dissipated as heat in the
grinding zone, it follows that temperature in that zone is controlled by the
addition of shower water.
 For a given grinding operation, wood, F, and dilution, D, (kg/s) enter the
grinder at Tin degrees C. The suspension leaving the grinder at Tout and
at a consistency, C. Assume that the steam is not formed. Determine the
electrical energy applied, E (J/kg), to maintain these outlet conditions.

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13
 Mech 450 – Pulping and Papermaking
Topic 3b – Refiner Mechanical Pulping

James A. Olson

Pulp and Paper Centre, Department of Mechanical

Engineering, University of British Columbia

Refiner Mechanical Pulp (RMP)

 Wood chips are comminuted into fibres by bars on rotating

and stationary discs

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 History

 1957 Stora (Sweden) installed a Defibrator

“raffinator”. Bauer shortly after
 1963 Both companies modified to operate under
pressure to make Thermo-mechanical pulp
 1970’s First 100% TMP newsprint
 1980’s 2-stage refining and heat recovery
 1985 Large refiners 15MW.
 Chemicals added to further soften lignin
(CTMP). Mechanical pulps are replacing
chemical pulps

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 Chip Handling

 Wood is typically chipped in a disc

chipper
 Goal is to have a high proportion of
acceptable chips
 3-16 knives on a disc
 4 m diameter
 450 m^3 / hr of solid wood
 Low cutting speed (20 m/s) as pin
chips increase with speed

Effect of chip size

 Over size chips

 Uneven feed in refiner
 Reduces quality

 Over thick fraction

 Contains most of the knots
 Decreases fibre length and long fibre portion
 Decreases strength and brightness

 Fines Fraction
 Lowers energy consumption
 Decreases strength, sheet density, brightness and light
scattering
 Creates linting problems and increases shive content

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Chip washing

 Immersed in a tank fed by a paddle

wheel (Sunds).
 Removes: Rocks, metal, sawdust, bark
 Adds moisture
 Raises temperature

Chip Screening

 Chips are passed through a series

of screens
 Oversize: left on screen with 45 mm holes
 Overthick: left on screen with 7 mm slots
 Accept: left on screen with 7 mm holes
 Pin chips: left on screen with 3 mm holes
 Fines: pass through last screen
 Overthick chips don’t react well to
pre-treatments, lower yield
 Fines and pin chips produce too
many shives (not refined)

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Chip Steaming/Preheating
 Atmospheric type
 Steam to 80 - 95 C
 Most are pressurized (50kPa to 110kPa over pressure)
 Objective is to warm chip and equalize the moisture
content
 Can optimize a bit:
 Higher temperature gives longer fibres, higher tensile
 Lower temperatures give better optical properties
 Chip impregnation systems
 Used in CTMP Processes
 Compresses chips
• Water is removed and is high in extractives… fed to effluent
• 4:1 compression ratio or higher
 Passes chips into a pool liquor containing chemicals
 Increase moisture content by 6-7%

Refining Equipment

Disc Refiner

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 Self Pressurization

 Refining imposes cyclic

compression of visco-elastic
material

 Generates tremendous amount

of heat and steam

 Dilution required to maintain

approx 30% consistency

 Steam pressure reaches max

and flows both ways

 Can cause blow-back

Types of Refiners

 Single disc,
 Moving rotor staionary stator
 1.7m Dia. 15 MW
 Double Disc
 Two counter-rotating discs
 More power delivered
 Less energy required per ton
• Higher shives, less long fibres,
(similar to SGW)
 Twin refiner
 One rotor, two stators… more
refining surface
• Low intensity refining possible

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Refiner size over time

Conical Disc Refiners

 Flat disc section and

conical section

 Increases grinding surface

without increasing
diameter

 Power: CD70, 76, 82 uses

15, 24 32 MW

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Refining Action

 Chips are preheated to soften lignin

 Chips hit breaker bars and undergo a
series of normal and shear forces
 Rapid Breakdown in screw feeder,
entrance zone and breaker bars
section.
 Fractures along grains, mostly along
fracture planes initiated in chipping
 Match stick size fragments accumulate
in refining zone with major axis along
tangential direction
 Match sticks defibred by longitudinal
grinding and brooming
 Fibres form flocs and flow out by
steam drag and inertial forces
 Flocs caught on bar edges and
repeatedly compresssed by passing
bars.
Breakerbars

Refining action

 Fibre development
step
 Fibres undergo cyclic
compressions
between bars

 Internally and
externally delaminates
the fibres

 Increases flexibility
and surface area

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 Refiner Segment Design Parameters
 Width of Grooves and Bars
 Traditionally the main parameter
 Wide grooves - narrow bars
• reduce specific energy consumption in refiner
• Open volume allows gap to be narrower and can result in lower pulp
quality
 Wide bars / narrower grooves
• Increase specific energy consumption and improve quality
• When Volume in groove is reduced steam flow is impeded and axial
load is higher and infeed of fibres is more difficult. This can lead to
unstable feed
 Height of the bars
 Higher the more open the groove volume, the better steam
removal
 Low bar height forces fibres to the plate gap an pulp quality
improves.
 Dam number, height, and placement
 Forces pulp from the grooves to the plate gap
 Residence time increases.
 Hinders steam removal
 Bar taper and angle
 When bars form a pumping angle fibre are forced through, lower
residence time which reduces energy consumption

Thermo-mechanical Pulp (TMP)

 Pulping carried out in two refiners in

tandem

 First refiner - pressurized with steam

(along with pre-steamer)

 Second refiner is atmospheric

 Produces longer fibre (stronger paper) and

fewer shives (small bundles of fibres)

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 Theory
P  PNo  Load
E
QC
 Specific Energy
E
 Intensity: e
 Number of impacts 
 Intensity of each impact:
“High Intensity”
EA
Specific energy per
impact I
“Low Intensity”
EB

How do we calculate residence time?

 Force balance on element of pulp

F  C  Fr1  Fr 2  bS
dv r 2 4r rPm (r )c(r ) b c( r )
   U 2 (r )C f Ap (r )
dr v m 2 v

r2
dr
 
r1
v

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Operating parameters
 Refiner speed (increase)
 Increase intensity at same power
 Lower energy at same freeness, lower length, and tear

 Inlet Consistency (increase)

 Increase moisture content and fibre length

 Production rate (increase)

 Reduce energy and lower length and strength

 Preheating and steaming temperature

 Not too critical

 Plate Gap
 Increases intensity
 Lead to pad collapse

Effect of refining on coarseness

 Coarseness:

 Decreasing coarseness support

delamination theory

 Lower coarseness of small fraction

indicate they are created from
fragments of cell wall

 Not always evident if we measure

coarseness of whole pulp
 Difficult to measure coarseness of pulp
with fines

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Effect of refining on long fibres

Effect of refining on fibre width

 Refining reduces fibre

width by removing outer
wall material.

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 Effect of refining on wall thickness

 High intensity refining

reduces wall thickness more
at same energy

 Outer part of fibre wall is

being peeled away

Effect of refining on fibre collapse

 X-section measured by CLSM

 Collapse index is an indication
of fibres ability to form ribbons
 High intensity process creates
more collapsed fibres at same
energy
 Wall stiffness about the same
 Therefore wall thickness is
less for high intensity

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Effect of refining on fibre flexibility

 Effect of increasing
energy plateaus at
moderate energies

 Fibre development is
mostly through removal
of outer wall

 Not through internal

delamination

Comparison of Pulp Properties

SGW RMP TMP

Energy required (GJ/ton) 5.0 6.4 7.0

Freeness 100 130 100-150

Burst index 1.2 1.6 1.8-2.4

Tear index 3.5 6.8 7.5-9.0

Breaking length (km) 3.2 3.5 3.9-4.3

Shive content (%) 3 2 0.5

Long fibre content (R48) 28 50 55

Fines content (P100) 50 38 35

Brightness (unbleached) 61.5 59 58.5

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 Miscellaneous Other Data

Typical Production Rate 300 Bdt/d

(of one refiner) 800 Bdt/d - modern

Typical gap between plates 0.5-1 mm

Typical Specific Energy 7 GJ/t

Typical Power to Refiners 20-30 MW

(27,000 – 42,000 horsepower

 10-15 train diesel locomotive)

Latency Removal

 After refining fibres are kinked and

curled and not suitable for
papermaking

 Lignin cools and holds kinked shape

 Latency removal straightens fibres

 Low consistency

 30 minutes

 90 degrees C

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Latency removal

 Latency removal result in:

Chemi Thermo Mechanical Pulping

(CTMP)

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Chemi-Mechanical Pulps

• To decrease energy cost or to improve pulp

quality, chemical treatments are often added to
mechanical pulping
• Pretreatment of chips
• to lower energy

• Interstage treatment
• lower energy, fibre flexibilization

• Post-treatment
• fibre flexibilization

Sulphonation reactions

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 Usual means is sulphonation using sodium
sulphite or sodium bisulphite

Low sulphonate High sulphonate

content (0-1%) content (1-2%)

Softening of
Softening of
middle lamella
fibre wall
lignin
lignin

Improved fibre
separation Increase in
fibre flexibility
Increased Decreased and conformability
long fibre shive content
content Decrease in freeness
Increase in breaking length
1. increase in tear index Decrease in specific scattering
2. increase in freeness

Pulp Properties

 RMP fibres broken

 TMP separated at primary wall,

some fibre broken

 CTMP Middle lamella very soft,

almost all fibres separated at
M.L.

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 Pulp Properties

 Light scattering reflects

fines content

 Tensile reflects surface

area and flexibility of
long fibres.

Pulp Properties Changes during Refining

 Strength increase

 Corresponds to energy
increase without cutting

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 “Alphabet” Pulps
 Many combinations of treatment and pulping processes are
possible

SGW
PGW
RMP PURE
PRINTING PULPS

TRMP MECHANICAL
PRMP
TMP
MONO PULPS

LFCMP HEAVY
CTLF FRACTIONAL

TCMP
CRMP LIGHT CHEMICALLY
REINFORCEMENT

CTMP MODIFIED
PULPS

OPCO
SCMP
BCMP HEAVY
UHYBS
UHYS

Effect of sulphonation on Lignin softening

temperature

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Effect of yield on fibre stiffness

Effect of sulphonation on fibre length

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Effect of sulphonation on tensile

Effect of Sulphonation Energy required

35
Effect of sulphonation on light scattering

Scattering vs Energy

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Mechanical Pulp Brightening

 Often desirable to make pulp brighter (whiter)

 Do not want to remove lignin to keep yield high

 Use “brightening” chemicals, e.g. hydrogen peroxide

 Problem: If lignin not removed, brightness not permanent

(reversion, yellowing)

 Example: BCTMP (Bleached Chemi-Thermo-Mechanical

Pulp)

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Screening and Cleaning

 Pulping process imperfect

 Small bundles of fibres (shives) remain

 These must be removed and further refined

 Mechanical pulping is therefore follows by an elaborate

screening system

 Subject of next lecture (after LC-refining)

TMP System

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Process may also include “cleaners”
(hydrocyclones)

Energy Recovery

 Enormous volume of steam produced from heat created

in mechanical pulping

 This steam can be recovered and used for mill process

steam, e.g. for paper drying

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Energy balance

 About 65% of electrical energy can be

recovered in this manner

RTS results
 Retention: Short retention in pre-
heater (10-20s).
 The short time at elevated temperature
reduces the brightness losses

 Temperature: increase pressure

to 5.5-6.0 bar

 Speed: Increase speed to 2000-

2500 RPM. Decreases specific
energy to get same ‘quality of
pulp’. 15% energy reduction.

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Conclusions

 Refining characterized by specific energy and intensity

 Refining removes outer wall material
 Thin wall, collapsible fibres
 Smoother, stronger paper

 Heat softens lignin

 More long fibres and less fines

 CTMP softens lignin in fibre wall

 Even more long fibres, less fines
 Makes fibres more collapsible at same wall thickness
 Less fines

The end

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