Pulping of highly contaminated recycled paper

This paper, by DIETRICH BERGFELD1, was presented at the 57th Appita Annual Conference in
Melbourne in May 2003.
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INTRODUCTION pulper soon had to be shut for cleaning, resulting in not only
intensive cleaning work but also significant production losses.
Greater demands are being placed on the performance of recy-
This situation applies for all recycled paper types (OCC,
cled paper pulpers due to a significant deterioration in the
MOW, ONP, liquid packaging board etc.) when slushing at
quality of recycled paper delivered to paper mills. In particu-
low consistency (approx. 4-5% bone dry).
lar, the contamination levels in recycled paper have substan-
The TwinPulpTM pulping system (Fig. 2) of a modern stock
tially increased over the past few years.
The function of the pulper is to gently slush the recycled preparation line for packaging grades using OCC coming
paper raw material into a pumpable pulp, suitable for process- either from local sources (LOCC) or from the US (AOCC)
ing in stock preparation whilst facilitating the efficient removal consists of
of contaminants from the pulp. • Low consistency (approx. 4-5% bone dry) continuously
The design of the pulping and detrashing equipment must operating UniPulperTM.
therefore satisfy a number of process requirements: Slush • Ragger for removing stringing contaminants such as strings,
down the recycled paper to individual fibres, avoiding fibre wires etc. (Fig 3).
damage and minimize fragmentation of contaminants to enable • The Junkomat (Fig. 4) for removing coarse heavy contami-
efficient removal in the downstream cleaning and screening nants which otherwise would cause serious wear or even
processes; an efficient detrashing system for removing contam- severe damage in the following equipment.
inants in the first stage of the stock preparation process; and • ContaminexTM (CM) operating as secondary pulper for gen-
undertake ink detachment and effective blending of chemicals. tle pulp deflaking and transporting
To meet these process requirements, a number of pulping • ContaminexTM vertical screen (CMV). This operates inter-
and detrashing systems have been developed and are success- mittently with wash cycles to facilitate the separation of
fully in operation. heavy- and lightweight contaminants.
The coarse heavy particles are discharged via a junktrap.
LOW CONSISTENCY CONTINUOUS Stock accepts are fed forward in the main process line or back
PULPING to the pulper.
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. 3 Ragger

Fig. 2 TwinPulpTM system

1 General Manager, Sales Overseas

Voith Paper Fiber Systems, Ravensburg/Germany Fig. 4 Junkomat
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Fig. 5 Coarse rejects Fig. 8 Pulping and Detrashing system for highly
contaminated waste

Fig. 6 Typical contaminant flow

Fig. 9 Drum screen showing light rejects

Fig. 7 Pulping and detrashing system for relatively clean

waste
The washed light rejects are discharged to a screen drum, Fig. 10 Heavyweight rejects from ContaminexTM
the accepts return to the pulper.
All rejects are free of fibres (Fig. 5), thus helping minimize materials such as ONP, OMG, MOW, white or coloured
fibre losses of the overall plant whilst also reducing rejects ledger, etc, as well as for pulping systems for packaging paper
disposal charges. grades such as OCC, mixed recycled papers, liquid packaging
Existing stock preparation plants can be retrofitted with the boards, etc.
TwinPulpTM detrashing system, resulting in production capacity High consistency pulping at consistencies of 12-18% bone
increases of up to 25%, lower fibre losses, reduced flake contents dry with intensive but gentle fibre- to -fibre friction maintains
after pulping to below 12% and more efficient reject removal. the original fibre properties and minimises fragmentation of
Measurements on existing plants have shown average contami- contaminants.
nant removals of more than 75% at this early stage (Fig. 6). With relatively clean recycled paper furnishes, slushing and
detrashing can be undertaken with the PreCleanTM I – pulping
HIGH CONSISTENCY BATCH PULPING and detrashing system (Fig. 7).
With highly contaminated recycled paper furnishes, pulping
As already mentioned, pulping systems aim to slush the raw and detrashing is carried out with the PreCleanTM II pulping
material as completely as possible without damaging fibres and detrashing system (Fig. 8).
and without breaking down non-paper components. The results are:
This is particularly required in deinking plants slushing raw • Gentle fibre-to-fibre friction at consistencies up to 18%
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Fig. 13 Original and new helix designs

Fig. 11 Screenex dewatering unit

Fig. 14 Slushing results illustrated on handsheets

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 Fig. 15 Bale wire coiler
rejects pumping to the drum screen.
• Drum screen provides light reject screening and washing Before feeding the raw material into the pulper all wires
(Fig. 9). Good fibres are flushed back pulper. have to be removed. The wires can be automatically wound
• Heavyweight rejects (Fig. 10) are discharged from the into compact coils in a bale wire coiler (Fig. 15) and sold as
ContaminexTM or Fiberizer into a Screenex (Fig. 11) or scrap metal.
T-Rex (Fig. 12) for reject dewatering.
A part from contaminant dewatering the stock is deflaked HIGH CONSISTENCY CONTINUOUS
in the bottom part of the T-Rex for recovery of useful fibres. PULPING
PreCleanTM II pulping systems are successfully in opera- Combining the advantages of gentle high consistency slushing
tion for deinking plants as well as for OCC preparation sys- (Fig. 16) with a continuous operating process ensures not only
tems. The world’s biggest HD pulper of capacity 160 m2 has optimum pulping conditions but also preservation of the origi-
been in operation for many years, handling OCC in the USA. nal fibre properties of the furnish.
Others are operating in Japan and in Australia with the same The Voith TwinDrumTM pulping and screening system
raw material. combines all these advantages including those of conventional
An optimized helix design (Fig. 13) introduced in existing drum pulpers, in a completely new and successfully proven
plants has resulted in a reduction in slushing time of up to pulping principle. We have patented this process.
20% as well as an increase in slushing consistency. This The TwinDrumTM concept consists of two drums (Fig. 17)
represents an increase in production for a very low increase in – one for pulping and one for screening.
specific slushing energy. In a conventional drum pulper (Fig. 18) the slushing is
Besides these advantages, a reduction in flake content (Fig. 14) achieved by carrying the stock upwards and letting it fall down
and an improvement in ink particle detachment has been observed. in a relatively high speed rotating drum. This is not very efficient.
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Fig. 19 Stock movement in the Voith drum pulper

Fig. 16 high consistency slushing

Fig. 20 Displacement principle of TwinDrumTM

Fig. 17 Voith TwinDrum pulping and screening system
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.
Fig. 18 Stock movement in a conventional drum pulper • By varying the amount of furnish, dwelltime in the drum can
be adjusted to suit the particular furnish whilst maintaining
Voith’s drum pulper (Fig. 19) consists of a drum rotating the same throughput rate. The filling level is easily adjusted
around a D-shaped stationary displacement core. The drum via a discharge device on the pulper discharge side.
and displacement core walls form a semi-annular channel in • Pulper power consumption remains virtually constant, inde-
which the furnish is carried upwards from the collection zone pendent of the filling level.
at the bottom of the pulper. Shear forces in this displacement • With this intensive pulping principle, even difficult furnish-
channel generate intensive fibre to fibre friction, ensuring es, such as liquid packaging board or recovered brown
effective kneading and slushing of the furnish. The furnish grades, present no problem. This has been successfully
then drops over the top edge of the displacement core and proven in installations handling 240 t/24 h liquid packaging
back down into the collection zone. Here, the large available board as well as OCC 1100 t/24 h.
volume provides a sufficiently long dwell time. This ensures For deinking plants this innovative displacement principle
complete wetting down and swelling of the furnish, - essential provides highly efficient, yet gentle slushing, effective blend-
conditions for facilitating the pulping process. ing and mixing/reaction of deinking chemicals and optimum
This continuous wetting, softening, kneading and fibre to ink detachment at optimum low rotational speeds of 1.5 m/sec
fibre friction process at consistencies up to 26% bone dry for the pulping drum.
along the length of the drum ensures gentle, yet efficient pulp- For best screening efficiency the drum screen (Fig. 21) oper-
ing of the recovered paper, without breaking down the non- ates at a speed of 2.5 m/sec. With a controlled consistency of 4
paper components, such as plastic foils, stickies, etc. – 8% bone dry right from the inlet, (another advantage of the
92 Appita Journal 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: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

www.appita.com.au

March 2004 93