Fibrek Paper Recycling Plant Fairmont, WV

Background 1 - 1 of 2 mills in the USA, produce dry, de-inked pulp - Largest producer of de-inked pulp in the world - The pulp is used in making printing and writinggrade, coated-grade, and tissue-grade paper products (Weyerhaeuser, GeorgiaPacific, International, Meade) - 130 employees - $250 million to build

Background 2 -Raw material used – 900-1000 metric tons a day of post-consumer mixed office waste paper. Collected from cities in eastern USA (major expense and varies widely from $200 to $500 ton). - Product produced – 600-700 metric tons a day of deinked market pulp - By-product – 300-400 metric tons a day of residual consisting of short paper fiber, clay, ash, ink, and calcium carbonate, which is used for mined land reclamation.

Process 1. Wastepaper is slurried by water addition. Pulp goes through pulper and screens – contaminant removal. 2. Kneading – loosens ink, separates fibers. 1st De-inking and Flotation – soap to remove dirt and ink. 3. 2nd De-inking and bleaching – hydrogen peroxide and formamidine sulfinic acid (FAS). Whitens! 4. Processing, sheet formation, drying. 5. Cut into squares, baled, and shipped.

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal 2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap 3. 2nd De-Ink, Bleaching and Whitening

4. Presses and Drying

5. Cutting and Baling

What a Beautiful Day

for a Field Trip!

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal 2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap 3. 2nd De-Ink, Bleaching and Whitening

4. Presses and Drying

5. Cutting and Baling

Process Diagram

1. Contaminant Removal 1. Everything goes into drum pulper and is spun. Plastics, CDs, aluminum cans, wood, iron, glass, money, etc., come out. 18 tons of trash are discarded each day. (Motor blocks!) 2. After 1st contaminant removal, everything goes into the soak tank. High density cleaners remove staples, rubber bands, clay, stickies (post-it notes). Material goes through coarse and fine screens.

Trucks unloading

“the typical wastepaper”

Bales on in feed conveyor

Automatic bale dewiring

On the conveyor to the drum pulper

drum pulper

Drum Pulper The waste paper on the conveyor is added to the pulper along with water.  The role of the pulper is to break apart the paper sheets into individual pulp fibers while leaving the contaminants as large as possible.  By the time the pulp slurry leaves the pulper, it looks like gray oatmeal. 

drum pulper

Pulper - continued At the end of the pulper is a screening unit that removes the really large contaminants, such as soda pop cans, bricks, pieces of metal and wood.  The rejects from the pulper are sent to landfill for disposal. 

Pulper rejects – plastics, metal

Rejects taken to a landfill

High Density Cleaners

High Density Cleaners Pulp from drum is diluted to 98% water and 2% solids. Mixture goes through cleaners with a spinning action. Heavy materials like staples, sand and glass go to the outside and downward. Cleaned pulp goes to top.

Cleaned Pulp Feed

Rejects

The centrifugal force inside the cleaner throws the heavy weight particles to the outside of the cleaner, the clean pulp does a 180o turn and exits from the top of the cleaner, while the rejects come out the bottom.

Bank of cleaners - working!

Coarse and Fine Screening After the high density cleaners the pulp goes through coarse and fine screens. Screens are barrier devices, similar in concept to the screen door on your house The screens used in the mill are circular in configuration and are termed “screen baskets.” The screens are pressurized.

Outside view of slotted fine screen basket

Coarse Hole Screen Basket - 1.6 mm holes

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal

2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap 3. 2nd De-Inking, Bleaching and Whitening

4. Presses and Drying

5. Cutting and Baling

2. Kneading and 1st Ink Removal

More water is added and the pulp goes through a kneader, which uses fingers to rub and scrape the pulp together (separates fibers).

A surfactant (soap) is added, which loosens the ink and clay, and the clay and ink stick to the edges of the soap bubbles (foam).

2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap

In a tank, the bubbles with the clay and ink are skimmed off. Cleaned pulp is thickened by belt presses, which squeeze out the water.

Kneader

Rub paper fibers together to scrape

Air is blasted into tank, and ink and clay stick to bubbles.

Bubbles skimmed off

Bubbles (Foam) skimmed off top

Flotation - bubbles and large ink particles

Ink particle Air Bubble

Turbulence in the flotation cell will cause the large ink particles to be detached from the air bubble.

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal

2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap

3. 2nd De-Inking, Bleaching and Whitening

4. Presses and Drying

5. Cutting and Baling

3.

1st

nd De-Inking, Bleaching and Whitening 3. 2nd

Bleaching Step and 2

De-inking – to the right side

Pulp is thickened and dispersed by steam, then water added again to dilute pulp to 10% (very syrupy). Bleach containing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and sodium silicate (NaSiO, liquid glass) are added. More water is added to dilute to 1% solids (gray water)

Air is blown into solution and the bubbles remove more ink and contaminants

Peroxide Bleaching  After dispersion the pulp is bleached with hydrogen peroxide.  The peroxide whitens the pulp and helps to restore the background brightness.  Hydrogen peroxide is an environmentally friendly bleach as it decomposes to water and oxygen.

3. 2nd De-Inking, Bleaching and Whitening

2nd Bleaching Step – to the left side of diagram Pulp is thickened to 10% and heated. Bleach containing FAS (formamidine sulfinic acid) is added to remove color. Moves to HD Storage Tower.

FAS Bleaching  FAS (formamidine sulphinic acid) is the second bleaching stage. It is used to remove the colors from the pulp.  Peroxide is a “oxidative” bleach and FAS is a “reductive” bleach, so the two combined do a good job of removing color and make the pulp bright and white.  The pulp then goes to the HD Tower.

HD Storage Tower

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal

2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap 3. Bleaching and Whitening

5. Cutting and Baling

4. Presses and Drying

4.

Presses and Drying

The pulp goes through a double wire press that squeezes the water out. Pressed to a 40% solid content and formed into thin sheets. 3. Bleaching and Whitening Then the pulp goes through a heavy duty belt press, which removes an additional 10% of the water, so the pulp is now at a 50% solids content. Huge Dryers then blow hot air through thin layers of the pulp to about 80% solid.

This section has very large presses and very large hot dryers!

Belt Presses Squeeze Water Out

Large Dryers

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal

2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap 3. Bleaching and Whitening

4. Presses and Drying

5. Cutting and Baling

5. Cutting and Baling

5. Cutting and Baling

The dried large sheets of pulp are cut into 3.5 x 3.5 foot squares, Weighed and wrapped, stenciled and inventoried, Sold to papermakers

Heavy Duty Belt Press

Dried Pulp in sheet

Cutting into Sheets

Pulp sheets being cut

Sheets being cut into squares

Heavy Duty Hydraulic Press

Bale line

Packaging

Wrapped

Out going bales

Waste Paper In Recycled Paper Out

Process Diagram

1 – Contaminant Removal

2. Kneading and 1st De-Ink with soap 3. Bleaching and Whitening

4. Presses and Drying

5. Cutting and Baling

Control Room with cameras to see process, pumps, belts, etc.

Inputs - 900-1000 metric tons of wastepaper per day - 1000 kw per hr / ton of paper - 3.5 million gallons of water per day in

Outputs - 600-700 tons of high quality pulp per day - 300-400 tons of residual byproduct per day - 18 tons of contaminants (trash) per day - 3.5 million gallons of water per day out

Environmental Benefits - Chlorine-free process, hydrogen peroxide used in bleaching process instead - Recycling at AFR saves 6 million trees a year from being cut - 1,500 tons of landfill space saved daily by applying residual to land

- Clean-burning natural gas is used for boiler fuel and steam production

Testing - Final product Hourly for Brightness, Ink Particles, Stickies and Color - In Process Every 2 hours for Brightness, Ink, Stickies and Color

Necessary for Quality Control

Kathy making a handsheet

Stickies tester

Laboratory Testing

What does it take to recycle? - Contaminant Removal - Filler Removal - Ink Removal - Bleaching (whitening and color removal) - Sheet Formation

-Much Water! - Energy

How Much Water? - Internal Use: 50 million gallons a day -Water from Monongahela River 3 million gallons a day comes in and must be clarified before use

- Wastewater Treatment Activated sludge process removes BOD and Solids

River Water Treatment (Inflow) and Mill Water Treatment (Outflow)

Effluent Treatment Plant

Safety Instructions Safety Glasses must be worn at all times. Glasses provided to you unless you wear glasses.

Hearing Protection is required in process areas. Very noisy and you often cannot hear the guide speaking. Earplugs provided. Pinch Points. There are numerous presses where pinch-nip points exist. Keep your hands clear of any operating machinery. Steam Lines. Steam is used to make pulp and lines run throughout the mill, although insulated. Keep hands away from piping. Wash Down Hoses. Hoses lie on the floor and must be stepped over. Emergency Exits will be pointed out to you. Guide. Always stay with the guide, pay close attention.

Reports Describe Process! 1. Contaminant Removal 2. Kneading and 1st De-inking 3. 2nd De-inking, bleaching and whitening 4. Presses and Drying 5. Cutting and Baling Include additional comments about what you saw and experienced. What do you think of recycling? So much is involved, is it worth it?

5: This is an outstanding report which reflects a very good knowledge about the site we visited and includes a thoughtful analysis of the processes we observed. The report is well organized with a clear writing style; 4: This is a good report that reflects a good knowledge about the site we visited, but there are some omissions of processes we saw. It is well organized but misses some important aspects of the field trip; 3: This is a satisfactory report that fulfills the assignment and describes most of the processes we saw but has errors in process explanation and lacks adequate descriptions; 2: This is a below-average report which fulfills the assignment but exhibits major problems in writing and organization. It is poorly developed and important meanings/explanations are confusing; 1: This grade is given to those who attend the field trip but did not submit a report; 0: No attendance at the field trip and no report.

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Fibrek Paper Recycling Plant Fairmont, WV