Decanter
How Sodra cell in Mönsterås Sweden have reduced chemicals used and sodium content in the disposed dregs
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Listen to representats from Södra Cell, Alfa Laval and Valmet talking about the solution.
Hey, my name is Carl-Johan Roos. I am the production manager here at Södra Cell in Mönsterås. At this plant, we create paper pulp. We receive wood, we chop it into chips, we boil it, and then we bleach it. In this plant, we produce 750,000 tonnes of paper pulp we supply district heating for Mönsterås, we produce bio methanol we produce tall oil. In the pulp cooking process, we use wood which contains inorganics. These inorganics end up in green liquor sludge and we need to take that out of the pulping process. Earlier, we used pre-coated drum filters with a low capacity and low efficiency for recycling valuable cooking chemicals in the form of sodium and sulphur. Sodium is a valuable chemical for us, and we like to recover as much of it as possible. The pre-coat in the drum filters contains lime mud, which contains calcium. That is also a valuable chemical for the pulping process. We chose to install two decanters at the same time just to maximize the take-out of sodium. This will benefit our economy and our environment. For Södra, sustainability is very important. Climate effect and resource efficiency are main focus areas in Södra?s strategy. After installation of the decanters, our demand for make-up sodium has been reduced significantly. This type of investment is good, both for the company and the environment in the long term. We are supplying our customers with process solutions, re-builds and also other kinds of services for the pulp mill, including recausticizing. From the Valmet's side, we can see increased demand for solutions like this due to aging equipment, but also for environmentally friendly solutions. Our responsibility in this project was based on an EPC contract where we supplied the process engineering, we supplied the installation and commissioning and start up and in this case, we also chose Alfa-Laval as the supplier of the centrifuges. We have been working with Södra Cell Mönsterås for replacing the existing drum filters with the decanter centrifuges for green liquor dregs de-watering. And in the process, we have realized that we go with a two-stage centrifuge process because that gives them better savings in terms of the recovery of the process chemicals and also the content of sodium in the disposed dregs is very low actually less than 5 grams per kilo. So, they are very happy because it helps them achieve their sustainability goals and also their clean-tech vision. And this is a good example of green liquor dregs de-watering for other pulp and paper mills across the world. Here in Mönsterås we develop our processes to be better more effective, and more environmentally friendly. In our most recent projects, we installed two centrifuges with the help of Valmet and Alfa Laval. And that turned out really great.