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Impregnation

HOT

DISPLACEMENT

HEATING

AND COOKING

COLD

DISPLACEMENT

PULP

DISCHARGE

Fig. 4.129 Typical displacement batch cooking cycle.

368 4 Chemical Pulping Processes

Chip Filling

The cooking cycle starts with chip filling, as wood chips are fed to the digester

with screw or belt conveyors. Screw conveyors have the advantage that their closed

design avoids the spread of wood dust which often is a nuisance with belt conveyors.

The chips drop from the conveyor into a chute and usually pass a packing device

as they enter the digester. Low-pressure steam is the most-used packing medium.

Introduced at an angle just as the chips enter the digester, the steam sets the chips

in a spiral motion and ensures their distribution across the digester cross-section.

Packing increases the amount of wood that can be charged to a digester by 10–

20%, thus leading to a higher pulp yield per digester volume. Packing also warms

up the chips and improves the homogeneity of the chip column in the digester

which is an important prerequisite for good liquor circulation and displacement

without channeling. Decent chip filling therefore is the starting point for uniform

pulp quality.

As the chips are warmed up, the air is positively displaced from inside the chips

by the increasing partial pressure of wood moisture and by its own increasing volume.

The residual air removal must happen by counter-diffusion of water vapor

against air. During chip filling, gas is evacuated from the digester through the

strainers by means of a blower.

Impregnation

In the next step of the cooking cycle, impregnation liquor is charged to the bottom

of the digester until the digester is hydraulically full. The impregnation liquor fill

can in fact start before the end of the chip fill in order to shorten the cooking cycle

time. At the end of the impregnation liquor fill, the digester is slightly overfilled

to make sure that it is full. Overflowing liquor is returned to the atmospheric

black liquor tank.

During impregnation, the wood is further preheated and residual air is removed

from within the chips as liquor enters their interior. The impregnation step is supported

by pressure generated by a pump to force the impregnation liquor into the

chips. Good impregnation is another key to uniform pulp quality.

Hot Displacement

After the impregnation step, the liquor in the digester is displaced by hot liquor.

Ideally, the hot liquor pushes out the liquor in the digester in a plug-flow manner.

As in all displacement steps, uniformity of penetration of the chip column without

channeling is of critical importance for the pulp quality. There is less risk of

screen pluggage by fibers when the flow rate of displacement and circulation

liquors is gradually ramped up to full flow.

The liquors charged to the digester during hot displacement carry both the

chemicals needed for cooking and the energy to heat the digester content. The

liquors displaced from the digester are routed to their destination in the tank

farm, depending on their temperature levels. At the end of the hot displacement,

the digester is already close to the cooking temperature.

4.2 Kraft Pulping Processes 369

Heating and Cooking

The final temperature increase required to reach the cooking temperature target

can be made by injecting steam into the digester circulation line, by indirect heating

in shell-and-tube heat exchangers, or by continued liquor displacement. Certain

technologies allow the alkali level to be adjusted during cooking.

When the digester content has reached the cooking temperature, the circulation

flow is sometimes reduced in order to protect the strainers from plugging with

fibers. The cooking step continues until the desired H-factor is reached.

Cold Displacement

The significant cooking reactions are terminated by cold displacement using filtrate

from brownstock washing. Again, it is essential to have plug-flow through

the digester, so that the initially displaced hot black liquor can be collected in the

hot black liquor tank at the highest possible temperature for re-use in the next

digester.

At some point during the cold displacement, wash filtrate begins to break

through to the displaced liquor and to bring its temperature down. When the temperature

drops below a set limit, the displaced liquor is switched from the hot

black liquor tank in the tank farm to another tank of lower temperature. The cold

displacement continues until the desired quantity of wash filtrate has been

pumped through the digester. The digester contents should then be cooled down

to a temperature below 100 °C.

In fact, the cold displacement step is the first brownstock washing stage. This

means that, over time, there must be a balance between the wash filtrate collected

from the wash plant and the liquor pumped through the digesters during the cold

displacement steps.

Digester Discharge

In the terminal step of the cooking cycle, the pulp is discharged from the digester

by pumping. The pump discharge is delicate since, even at the end of the cook,

the pulp in the digester still exhibits the physical structure of the wood chips.

Wash filtrate is added for dilution to the lower part of the digester and to the discharge

elbow. The sustainable consistency for pumping pulp from the digester is

typically lower than 5%.

Besides appropriate dilution, the size of the discharge elbow and of the discharge

valve are critical for a successful pump discharge. It is important for the

succeeding cook that the pulp discharge is as complete as possible and that no

pulp is left in the digester when the next cook starts.

Heat Management

Hot black liquor from a previous cook is stored in the tank farm and, as it is

charged to the digester, passes on its heat energy directly to the next cook. The

remainder of hot black liquor not re-used in hot displacement is available for indirect

heat transfer to white liquor and process water in shell-and-tube heat exchangers.

370 4 Chemical Pulping Processes

Typically excess hot black liquor, which is not needed in hot displacement, heats

white liquor coming from the recausticizing plant. The temperature levels in the

other black liquors are normally not high enough to be economically transferred

to white liquor. Nonetheless, they are sufficiently hot for the generation of considerable

amounts of hot water from warm water. The hot water temperature achievable

from cooling of warm black liquor is 80–90 °C. The cooling of wash filtrate

coming from brownstock washing yields somewhat lower water temperatures,

because the filtrate temperature must be low enough to bring the digester contents

safely beneath the boiling point.

In addition, the temperature of hot white liquor and/or hot black liquor is

adjusted in the tank farm by indirect steam heating. Steam heating in the tank

farm has the advantage of continuous steam consumption as compared to digester

circulation liquor heating, which occurs only during the short period of heating

to cooking temperature.

Fiber Removal from Black Liquor

The holes in the screens which are installed in the batch digesters need to be a

few millimeters in diameter to avoid plugging during displacement and circulation.

Whenever displaced liquor leaves a digester, it carries a certain amount of

fibers to the tank farm. As a consequence, all liquors circulated in the tank farm

contain fibers, as well as the black liquor in the atmospheric black liquor tank

which is bound for chemical recovery. Since fibers are highly unwelcome in the

evaporation plant, the liquor transferred to evaporation from the atmospheric

black liquor tank must be subjected to fiber removal by a liquor filter or a liquor

screen.

Soap Skimming

The soaps which are generated during softwood pulping can cause foaming and

displacement problems if recycled back to the digester in a displacement cooking

plant. Skimming of soap is a tricky undertaking because the separation of soap

from the liquor occurs in narrow ranges of dry solids and pH. Usually, soap

removal functions best from a liquor returning to the atmospheric black liquor

tank. This liquor must then be allowed enough retention time for soap to come

afloat. A dedicated, separate soap separation tank has proven most effective. The

segregated soap is then pumped to the evaporation plant in a separate line or together

with the black liquor.

Gas Management

The gases vented from apparatus and equipment in the digester plant contain malodorous

compounds, and must be collected for reasons of emission control and maintaining

an acceptable workplace environment. Atmospheric tanks are connected to

the high-volume low-concentration (HVLC) gas collection system. Such tanks include

the atmospheric black liquor tank, the wash filtrate tank, and the pulp discharge

tank. The air evacuated during the chip fill goes also to the HVLC gas system.

4.2 Kraft Pulping Processes 371

Besides non-condensable constituents, the gases vented from the pressurized

tanks in the tank farm contain large amounts of moisture due to their elevated

temperature. They are therefore passing condensation before proceeding to the

low-volume high-concentration (LVHC) gas system. When the digester plant is

being used to process softwood, the condensate contains turpentine, which is separated

from the condensate by decanting.

4.2.8.2.4 Rapid Displacement Heating (RDH)

A typical RDH tank farm consists of three pressurized accumulators and two atmospheric

tanks (Fig. 4.130). The liquor accumulators A, B, and C are staged in

temperature. Fresh alkali is provided from the hot white liquor tank. Steam is

used for top-heating of white liquor in the tank farm and for bringing the digester

to cooking temperature by indirect condensation.

HBL

"C"

WBL DIG WF

"B"

BL

"A"

HWL

WHITE LIQUOR

CHIPS

PULP

BLACK

LIQUOR

WASH

FILTRATE

WW

HW

STEAM

STEAM

Fig. 4.130 Simplified Rapid Displacement Heating (RDH) process

flowsheet. BL = black liquor; WBL= warm black liquor;

HBL= hot black liquor; HWL= hot white liquor; DIG = digester;

WF = wash filtrate; WW = warm water; HW = hot water [1].

The RDH cooking cycle is shown schematically in Fig. 4.131. After chip filling,

warm black liquor (WBL) of up to 130 °C from the B accumulator is used for

impregnation. Then, hot white liquor (HWL) and hot black liquor (HBL) from the

C accumulator are charged to the digester during hot displacement. The displaced

liquor is first returned to the A tank and then to the B accumulator. After hot displacement,

the digester is brought to cooking temperature by indirect steam heating.

Circulation is sometimes stopped after the target temperature has been

reached. Subsequent to cooking, wash filtrate (WF) displaces the hot black liquor

first into the hot black liquor accumulator C and then to the warm black liquor

372 4 Chemical Pulping Processes

PULP

WF

STEAM

WF

HBL, WBL

HWL + HBL

BL, WBL

WBL

CHIPS

AIR

CHIP FILL

RDH

COOKING

CYCLE