Water Management in Papermaking

Good water management allows papermakers to mitigate the negative impacts of contaminant accumulation in process water streams. This can result in an improvement of product quality and process stability along with reduced costs, energy consumption, and water consumption.

Water quality impacts process performance

The increasing need for papermakers to reduce water use leads to the increase of dissolved substances and colloidal material in paper machine water loops. Such contaminants impact machine performance through their negative impact on the process, particularly wet end chemistry. This impact can lead to increased costs for papermakers tied to poor process stability, high chemical consumption, and poor drainage which subsequently results in increased energy requirements in drying. Water contaminants also increase risks tied to bacterial deposits and slimes in the process.

A focus on water management

At RISE we work directly with industry to solve problems related to water management. We aim to reduce direct and indirect costs, impacts and risks related to water with the ultimate goal to improve productivity in papermaking. RISE can help papermakers with:

Identification of water re-use possibilities and improvement of water loop separation
Identification of key contaminants in the process, their source, and both the cost and risks they pose to the process
Evaluation of alternatives to control contaminant buildup in processes including lab and pilot evaluation, techno-economical assessment and feasibility studies.
Identification of microbiological impacts and techniques to minimise biological impact on the process.
Evaluation of water cleaning technologies to act as kidneys for decontamination of water loops and advanced combinations of treatment technologies.
Assessment of recourse recovery opportunities from water streams.

Water Survey in Industries

During water surveys in paper mills RISE is deployed and tasked with preparing background information, deep understanding of the process/paper chemistry, survey water sampling points, on-site laboratory analysis of waters, interpretation of results and providing recommended actions for improvements based on CAPEX. All this work is completed in close cooperation with mill personnel and R&D department of Pulp-Paper companies. Some of the outcomes from water surveys include reduced variability in the paper machine, direct water-savings, removal of contaminants at the source, decontamination of water loops and improved chemical efficiency.

Contact: Luis Carlos Felix Tapia