Kraft pulping recovery

Manufacture. The oldest method for producing Na2S is by the reduction of sodium sulfate with carbon in a refractory oven at 900—1000°C. Whereas this method is no longer used commercially in the United States, a variation is used to produce sodium sulfide captively during kraft pulp processing to replace lost sodium and sulfur values that were initiated into the system by merchant-suppHed sodium sulfide. In this method, sodium sulfate is added to the system in the recovery furnace, where it is reduced by carbon from the wood pulp to produce sodium sulfide. 

Hydrogen sulfide Refinery gases, crude oil, sulfur recovery, various chemical industries using sulfur compounds Petroleum and chemicals Kraft pulping process Foul odor of rotten eggs irritating to eyes and respiratory tract darkening exterior paint... 

The most widely used pulping process is the kraft process, as shown in Fig. 6-11, which results in recovery and regeneration of the chemicals. This occurs in the recovery furnace, which operates with both oxidizing and reducing zones. Emissions from such recovery furnaces include particulate matter, very odorous reduced sulfur compounds, and oxides of sulfur. If extensive and expensive control is not exercised over the kraft pulp process, the odors and aerosol emissions will affect a wide area. Odor complaints have been reported over 100 km away from these plants. A properly controlled and operated kraft plant will handle huge amounts of material and produce millions of kilograms of finished products per day, with little or no complaint regarding odor or particulate emissions. 

Fig. 6-11. Schematic diagram of the kraft pulping process (6). 1, digester 2, blow tank 3, blow heat recovery 4, washers 5, screens 6, dryers 7, oxidation tower 8, foam tank 9, multiple effect evaporator 10, direct evaporator 11, recovery furnace 12, electrostatic precipitator 13, dissolver, 14, causticizer 15, mud filter 16, lime khn 17, slaker 18, sewer.

The kraft process has become the dominant process for pulp production throughout the world, primarily because of the recovery of the pulping chemicals. A schematic diagram of the kraft pulping process, with the location of atmospheric emission sources, is shown in Fig. 6-11. 

Kraft pulping is a common process in the paper industry. Figure 8.4 shows a simplifled flowsheet of the process. In this process, wood chips are reacted (cooked) with white liquor in a digester. White liquor (which contains primarily NaOH, NaiS, Na2C03 and water) is employed to dissolve lignin from the wood chips. The cooked pulp and liquor are passed to a blow tank where the pulp is separated from the spent liquor weak black liquor which is fed to a recovery system for... 

The overall system that we will analyze comprises the unbleached Kraft pulp line, chemicals and energy recovery zones of a specific paper mill (Melville and Williams, 1977). We will employ a somewhat simplified but still realistic representation of the plant, originally developed in a series of research projects at Purdue University (Adler and Goodson, 1972 Foster et al., 1973 Melville and Williams, 1977). The records of simulated operation data, used to support the application of our learning architecture, were generated by a reimplementation, with only minor changes, of steady-state models (for each individual module and the system as a... 

Foster, R., et al., Optimization of the Chemical Recovery CVcle of the Kraft Pulping Process, Laboratory for Applied Industrial Control, Report 54. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 1973. 

FIGURE 21.4 The kraft pulping process (with chemical recovery). (Taken from U.S. EPA, Profile of the Pulp and Paper Industry, 2nd ed., report EPA/310-R-02-002, U.S. EPA, Washington, November 2002.)... 

Wood chips are treated with acetic acid at pressures that are significantly lower than those used for Kraft pulping. Drawbacks include loss of acid, although recovery is possible through the... 

Fig. 2. Flow diagram of kraft pulp mill (1) debarking, (2) chipping, (3) screening, (4) steaming, (5) impregnating, (6) digesting, (7) fibrilizing, (8) screening, (9) fibeiizing. OOi washing, (11) chemical recovery...

From Table III, the similarities and differences among processes become apparent. Certainly the domination of sodium as a base, and sulfur as an active reagent, become obvious. The narrow range of cooking temperatures and yields also becomes apparent. What is not shown is the strength advantage of Kraft pulp. Also not shown are such process considerations as chemical and energy recovery. 

While sulfite pulping is less popular than Kraft pulping, it is more prevalent in the production of dissolving pulps. Further, sulfite pulping permits recovery of ethanol from the spent pulping liquor before incineration, as is... 

Large quantities of hydroxy acids as well as acetic and formic acids are formed during kraft pulping (Tables 10-3 and 7-8). Among hydroxy acids from softwood, glucoisosaccharinic acid predominates. Especially when considering that the heat value of these hydroxy acids is only 25-50% of that of kraft lignin, their recovery seems motivated, but adequate markets have not yet been established for these products. Liberation of the aliphatic acids... 

Ivermark, R., and Jansson, H. (1970). Recovery of tall oil from kraft pulp mills. Sven. Pap-perstidn. 73, 97-102. (In Swed.)... 

Kraft pulp mills Digesters batch and continuous Multiple-effect evaporators Recovery furnace Weak and strong black-liquor oxidation Smelt tanks Lime kiln Mercaptans, methanol (odors) H2S, other odors H2S, mercaptans, organic sulfides, and disulfides h2s Particulates (mist or dust) Particulates (dust), H2S Condensers and use of lime kiln, boiler, or furnaces as afterburners Caustic scrubbing and thermal oxidation of noncondensables Proper combustion controls for fluctuating load and unrestricted primary and secondary air flow to furnace and dry-bottom electrostatic precipitator noncontact evaporator Packed tower and cyclone Demisters, venturi, packed tower, or impingement-type scrubbers Venturi scrubbers... 

The recovery of phenol, cresols, and guaiacol by extraction from kraft pulping process black liquor. 

Liquors from Neutral Semichemical Pulping and from Kraft Pulping. In making neutral sulfite semichemical pulp, the black liquors may have about 10 parts of water to 1 part of total solids, of which about one-third is sodium acetate and sodium formate. After evaporation to about 1 part solids to 1 part water, sulfuric acid is added to the concentrate to free the acetic and formic acids. When the concentrate is extracted with acetone, the mixed acids are obtained, the acetone is separated for recycle, and the acids are concentrated and refined. The raffinate is stripped and is passed to the usual furnace to be burned for recovery of the inorganic salt values. This process gives a smelt of sodium sulfate, which may be used in the kraft process as chemical makeup. The loss of the fuel value of the acetic and formic acids is practically negligible. 

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