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Grant of $2.8 million awarded
to examine pulp paper practices
Researchers at NC State received a new $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve efficiency and product quality in the multi-billion dollar global pulp and paper industry.
Dr. Lucian Lucia, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Dimitris Argyropoulos, professor of chemistry, both in the Department of Wood and Paper Science at NC State, along with researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a partnering international company, will do this work over the next four years. Using modern engineering and chemical principles, the researchers plan to retrofit the traditional kraft pulping process by rerouting specific wood pulping process streams in a way never before done in the United States.
Every day, pulp and paper mills use tremendous amounts of chemicals and energy to break down – or pulp – lignin, a polymeric “glue” in wood that binds individual wood fibers together. Lignin is degraded by the kraft process, which is characterized by conditions of high alkalinity, sulfidity and temperature. Kraft operations can pulp anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand tons of wood in one day and convert the pulp to paper and associated products.
These operations need to be extremely efficient in order to be economical, environmentally benign and industrially feasible. The reason for this is because of the economy of scale in which the pulp and paper industry works. A typical kraft pulp mill can produce about 1,000 tons of pulp every day, which means that even a 1 percent gain in productivity can translate into enormous dollar savings and environmental benefits in one year.
The NC State team will investigate and evaluate the effects of adding an inexpensive chemical to specific process streams with the intention of enhancing the energy efficiency, productivity and product quality of the pulping process. By using small amounts of this chemical in the pulping process, the rate of the pulping process was found to increase by more than 20 percent, resulting in an increase in overall pulp yield of five absolute percentage points (48 percent vs. 43 percent pulp yield found in typical mills) since the wood is pulped more quickly. Moreover, the chemical is about five times less expensive on a bulk scale than anthraquinone – another chemical the industry could use for the same purpose – and has less of an environmental impact.
Preliminary calculations, done by the researchers, indicate that the new process has the potential to significantly reduce the energy demands of the entire industry. For example the new process will ultimately save an average U.S. kraft pulp mill more than $7 million per year.
“This research grant will help us understand the chemistry of this process a lot better,” Lucia said. “We will then explore the benefits of the work on a large scale by implementing the technology at a mill site over the next four years.”
Posted March 9, 2005
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