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In this study, fines-enriched pulp (FE-pulp)—the fine fraction of highly-refined kraft pulp—was benchmarked against highly-refined kraft pulp (HRK-pulp) as a strength agent in eucalyptus chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP). Both the FE-pulp and the HRK-pulp were produced from unbleached softwood kraft pulp, and equal amounts of those strength agents were added to the original CTMP, as well as to washed CTMP, where most of the fines had been removed. The effects of the added strength agents were evaluated with laboratory handsheets. The FE-pulp proved to be twice as effective as HRK-pulp. Both HRK-pulp and FE-pulp increased the strength of the CTMP handsheets. The bulk of the handsheets decreased, however, as well as the drainability. The addition of 5% FE-pulp resulted in the same strength increase as an addition of 10% HRK-pulp, as well as the same decrease in bulk and CSF. For the handsheets of washed CTMP, the strengths were not measurable; the CTMP lost the sheet strength when the CTMP-fines content was reduced through washing. The reduced strength properties were compensated for by the addition of chemical pulp fines that proved to be an efficient strength agent. The addition of 5% FE-pulp restored the strength values, and at a higher bulk and higher drainability.

The objective in this work was to obtain a fine fraction of kraft pulp, with as high concentration as possible, in a pilot-scale fractionation with micro-perforated screen baskets. The influence of screen basket surface, hole size, feed concentration, pulp type and refining segment design was investigated. The results showed that a smooth screen basket surface improved the fractionation efficiency of the unrefined pulp compared to a profiled screen basket, despite a larger hole size. A significantly higher fine fraction concentration was obtained when using refined hardwood pulp compared to when using softwood pulp, which was explained with its lower average fibre length and narrower and thus more flexible fibre fragments. The pilot trials also showed that the screening process could be operated at feed concentrations similar to those directly after a refiner, 30–40 g/l. This was demonstrated in a process layout with partial recirculation where a refiner and a micro-perforated screen basket were operated in series in pilot scale.

The objective for this work was to investigate the possibility to use a pressure screen equipped with a micro-perforated screen basket to produce a fine fraction from bleached chemical pulp. Trials were performed with unrefined bleached chemical hardwood pulp, and with unrefined and refined bleached chemical softwood pulp. The effect of feed concentration, feed flow, and volumetric fine fraction flow was evaluated. The difference between the fine fraction (i. e. the particles passing the screen) and the feed was analysed by studying the fibre morphology. The results showed that high feed concentration was positive for both the fine fraction concentration and the separation efficiency. A higher fine fraction concentration was also obtained when using hardwood pulp, which was explained by the shorter fibre length. Refining of the pulp prior to the fractionation proved beneficial, as a larger share of the refined pulp passed the screen, resulting in a twice as high concentration of the fine fraction when compared to unrefined pulp.

The use of infrared radiation for heating the web in the through air drying process was investigated in lab scale. The hypothesis was that infrared radiation should be a more efficient method to transfer drying energy to the wet web compared to hot air, but that a certain air flow is still required as a transport medium for the evaporated water. A trial program comprising handsheets made of two types of bleached chemical pulps, five grammages (15, 22, 30 and 60 g/m²), and dried with five radiator power levels was performed on a lab scale through air drying equipment. Drying times of the samples were determined from temperature data recorded with an infrared camera. The use of infrared radiation shortened drying times, especially for low grammage samples. The shortening of the drying time ranged between 10 and 45 %. The most substantial shortenings were obtained for the lowest grammages and the highest radiator power level. However, the increase of power did not linearly shorten drying time. After an initial shortening at the lowest power level, the positive effect of the IR heating decreased as the power was further increased.

The influence of the refining process on the morphological changes of a chemical softwood pulp was investigated. The Voith LR40 industrial-like laboratory low consistency refiner was used, where th ...

The influence of grammage and pulp type on through air drying was studied. The temperature of a sample was measured during the drying process and the observed temperature changes were used to evalu ...

The removal of water is an integral part of tissue paper production. Through air drying (TAD) is used for water removal when producing premium tissue grade products, however, at the price of higher energy demand. A better understanding of TAD may therefore lower the energy demand.The objective was to investigate the influence of formation, pulp type and grammage on non-uniform drying and air flow through sheets. A laboratory method, based on infrared thermography, was used to determine drying time and area-specific and mass-specific drying rates. Air flow rate and pressure drop were used to determine flow resistance and modified permeability.Pulp type had a large influence on the air flow through the sheet. Modified permeability, i.e. the material property describing the air flow through the fibre network, was strongly dependent on grammage for lower grammages, while it approached a constant value for higher grammages. In contrast to that, mass-specific drying rates were similar for the different pulp types at lower grammages, but proved to be grammage-dependent for higher grammages. Formation did not influence the drying speed to any large extent.The results illustrate that industrial TAD processes operate under very special process conditions due to the low grammage sheets.

Thermography is a non-destructive technique which uses infrared radiation to obtain the temperature distribution of an object. The technique is increasingly used in the pulp and paper industry. To convert the detected infrared radiation to a temperature, the emittance of the material must be known. For several influencing parameters the emittance of paper and board has not previously been studied in detail. This is partly due to the lack of emittance measurement methods that allow for studying the influence of these parameters.An angle-resolved goniometric method for measuring the infrared emittance of a material was developed in this thesis. The method is based on the reference emitter methodology, and uses commercial infrared cameras to determine the emittance. The method was applied to study the dependence on wavelength range, temperature, observation angle, moisture ratio, sample composition, and sample structure of the emittance of paper and board samples. It was found that the emittance varied significantly with wavelength range, observation angle and moisture ratio. The emittance was significantly higher in the LWIR (Long-Wavelength Infrared) range than in the MWIR (Mid-Wavelength Infrared) range. The emittance was approximately constant up to an observation angle of 60° in the MWIR range and 70° in the LWIR range, respectively. After that it started to decrease. The emittance of moist samples was significantly higher than that of dry samples. The influence of moisture ratio on the emittance could be estimated based on the moisture ratio of the sample, and the emittance of pure water and dry material, respectively.The applicability of measured emittance values was demonstrated in an investigation of the mechanical properties of sack paper samples. An infrared camera was applied to monitor the generation of heat during a tensile test of a paper sample. It was found that the observed increase in thermal energy at the time of rupture corresponded well to the value of the elastic energy stored in the sample just prior to rupture. The measured emittance value provided an increased accuracy in the thermal energy calculation based on the infrared images.

A method for measuring the directional emittance of paper and board samples was developed. The available literature showed that the influence of temperature and observation angle on the emittance o ...

The fractionation efficiency and operating conditions of a novel hydrocyclone design were evaluated. The novel design comprised a modified inlet section, where the pulp suspension had to pass a narrow ring-shaped opening, and a very compact fractionation zone. The effect of feed concentration and fine fraction mass ratio was studied. The experiments were performed with fully bleached, unrefined and never-dried chemical softwood pulp. Fractionation efficiency was evaluated in terms of change in surface roughness of handsheets. Feed concentration had a large influence on the fractionation results, with a lower feed concentration resulting in improved fractionation efficiency. Furthermore, the surface roughness improved considerably for very low fine fraction mass ratios. Surprisingly, these ratios were much lower compared to the share of earlywood fibres in the pulp. The novel hydrocyclone design showed a lower thickening of the coarse fraction when compared with previous experiences with conventional hydrocyclones. Based on these results a hypothesis on the separation mechanism in a hydrocyclone was proposed. It suggests the existence of a radial variation in suspension composition in the fractionation zone, and most likely also a layer of unfractionated feed pulp along the outer wall. The existence of the gradient and the layer could explain that, especially at higher feed concentrations, a significant improvement in surface roughness was only obtained when the fine fraction ratio was significantly below the earlywood fibre share in the pulp.

A laboratory suction box was built to study the dynamic thickness deformation of a fibre web during a suction pulse. Both the pressure in the suction box and the duration of the suction pulse are a ...

The deformation of the paper web during and after a suction pulse on initially saturated fibre web made of chemical and mechanical pulp was investigated. A laboratory suction box was used, where th ...

This review summarizes the present knowledge of suction box dewatering mechanisms. In addition, existing and novel suction box dewatering processes are described for applications in the pulp and pa ...

The potential of membrane-assisted dewatering was evaluated on a laboratory suction box. Different membranes, one impermeable and two permeable membranes were placed on top of the wet web, while a ...

A method has been developed to enable external rewetting to be measured during suction box dewatering. In a laboratory suction box, webs were instantaneously separated from the forming fabric at de ...

The tangential velocity flow field in a conical hydrocyclone was measured using a self-cleaning pitometer. The influence of pulp fibre concentration on the tangential velocity profile was of particular interest. The measurements showed that the pulp fibres had a strong influence on the tangential velocity profile. When operating the hydrocyclone with pure water, the velocity profile showed the typical combination of free-vortex-like rotation close to the hydrocyclone wall and solid-body-like rotation in the proximity of the hydrocyclone axis. This profile changed significantly when pulp fibres were added. At a low fibre concentration (1.2 g/l), the fibres smoothened the transition between the free-vortex-like and the solid-body-like region of the velocity profile. The location of the maximum tangential velocity moved to a larger radius. At higher fibre concentration (7.5 and 11 g/l), the free-vortex-like behaviour in the outer area was virtually suppressed. Due to networking, the fibre suspension in the entire hydrocyclone behaved as a solid body. The radial acceleration profile and tangential rate-of-strain profile were determined. Based on these profiles, a hypothesis was proposed explaining the well-known observation that fractionation efficiency decreases significantly at higher fibre concentrations.

The complex flow field of hydrocyclones has been experimentally investigated on several occasions. Most studies present similar results for the tangential velocity component. In the inner part of t ...

A method for determining the water content at the interface between a press felt and a paper web has been developed. The water content was obtained by subtracting the estimated volume of the indent ...

This article aims to identify the most appropriate numerical methodology for simulating hydrocyclone flows with high swirl numbers. The numerical results are validated against the tangential velocity measurements from a cylindrical hydrocyclone with a swirl number of 8.1, which is twice the typical swirl magnitude of industrial hydrocyclones. The linear and quadratic formulations of the Reynolds stress transport (RST) model are used to simulate the anisotropic swirling turbulent flow three-dimensionally in the commercial software package Fluent (TM). The tangentical velocity profiles predicted by the quadratic RST model are in good agreement with experimental data. They also show Rankine vortex patterns over the entire flow domain. In contrast, the linear RST model fails to predict this important swirl flow feature. In addition, both models predicted a complex axial flow reversal pattern not previously reported in hydrocyclones. This study clearly shows that the quadratic RST model is preferable for future hydrocyclone simulations, especially when the swirl number is large. All necessary physical and numerical parameters used to obtain converged results are given in this article.

This investigation evaluates a novel fluid velocity measurement method to measure the tangential velocity in a hydrocyclone. The hydrocyclone was operated with an opaque fiber suspension in order t ...

Two novel techniques to measure velocity in opaque pulp fiber suspensions have been evaluated in a hydrocyclone. A pitometer equipped with a medical micropressure transducer was used to record the tangential velocity. The pressure opening of the pitometer was kept clean with a small purge flow. The small size of the probe minimized its influence on the flow field. The pitometer was able to measure the tangential velocity in the fiber suspension at different levels in the hydrocyclone. Additionally, a non-intrusive ultrasonic velocity profiler (UVP) was used to measure the radial particle velocity. The UVP proved to be capable of measuring radial particle velocity profiles.

Thermography is a non-destructive technique which uses infrared radiation to obtain the temperature distribution of an object. The technique is increasingly used in the pulp and paper industry. To convert the detected infrared radiation to a temperature, the emittance of the material must be known. For several influencing parameters the emittance of paper and board has not previously been studied in detail. This is partly due to the lack of emittance measurement methods that allow for studying the influence of these parameters.An angle-resolved goniometric method for measuring the infrared emittance of a material was developed in this thesis. The method is based on the reference emitter methodology, and uses commercial infrared cameras to determine the emittance. The method was applied to study the dependence on wavelength range, temperature, observation angle, moisture ratio, sample composition, and sample structure of the emittance of paper and board samples. It was found that the emittance varied significantly with wavelength range, observation angle and moisture ratio. The emittance was significantly higher in the LWIR (Long-Wavelength Infrared) range than in the MWIR (Mid-Wavelength Infrared) range. The emittance was approximately constant up to an observation angle of 60° in the MWIR range and 70° in the LWIR range, respectively. After that it started to decrease. The emittance of moist samples was significantly higher than that of dry samples. The influence of moisture ratio on the emittance could be estimated based on the moisture ratio of the sample, and the emittance of pure water and dry material, respectively.The applicability of measured emittance values was demonstrated in an investigation of the mechanical properties of sack paper samples. An infrared camera was applied to monitor the generation of heat during a tensile test of a paper sample. It was found that the observed increase in thermal energy at the time of rupture corresponded well to the value of the elastic energy stored in the sample just prior to rupture. The measured emittance value provided an increased accuracy in the thermal energy calculation based on the infrared images.

The steady-state compressibility of water-saturated Experimental work webs was investigated under annlied mechanical nressures between 30 Pa and 42 kPa. The we'bs were made fro a mechanical pulp, and an unbleached and a bleached chemical pulp. For each of these pulps, the relationship between mechanical pressure and bulk could be described by a power-law relationship with an r2-value higher than 0.98.