» Industry News
Cachar Paper gets ISO 14001
(Business Line, Chennai, 10.04. 2003)
Kolkata: The one lakh - tonne per- annum capacity Cachar Paper Mill of the
State-owned Hindustan Paper Corpora-tion (HPC) has been awarded the ISO
14001:1996 environ-mental management system certification by Det Norske
Veritas of the Netherlands. The mill is located at Panchgram in Assam.
According to an HPC press release, the certification is an important step
towards fulfillment of The corpora-tion's commitment as a responsible
corporate citizen for a clean environment and ensuring conservation of
natural resource and promotion of compensatory afforestation through
community initiatives.
ITC gets Golden Peacock Award for Cleaner Technology
(Business Line, Chennai, 16.06.2003).
New Delhi, June 15: ITC Ltd has been declared the win-ner of the prestigious
'. Golden Peacock Environment Management Award'. The award to ITC is in
recognition of its introduction of cleaner technology. ITC had recently
initiated a' Cleaner technology programme' at its paperboards plant in
Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh..
It has already achieved zero-effluent discharge from the new chlorine
dioxide plant. The ECF technology also complies with the rigorous
Environment Protection Agen-cy (EPA) Cluster Rules of the US. Alongside,
power consumption at ITC's paperboards plant in Andhra Pradesh. has been
signficantly reduced from 1,456 kilowatt-hours (KwH) per tonne of paper and
paperboards in 1997-98 to 999 KwH in 2002-03. This has made the paperboard
unit one of the most energy - efficient paperboard plants in the world.
Similarly, water consumption per unit of paperboard production has also been
reduced from 183 cub-ic metres (cu.m.) in 1997-98 to 79 cu.m. in 2002-03.
Chlorine -Free Tech to Cost Paper Industry Rs. 6000 cr
(The Financial Express, Mumbai, 20.2.2003)
Mumbai: The Country's pulp and paper industry will re-quire an investment of
around Rs 6,000 crore over the next two years to switch to a chlorine-free
bleaching technology.
In line with the Rio Convention and the Montreal protocol, the Indian paper
industry was required to elimi-nate the use of chlorine in bleaching of
paper pulp by 2002. But following a recent dialogue with ministry for
environment and forests, the industry managed to get the deadline deferred
to December 2005.
"The largest contributor to pollution in paper manufacturing is the
pulp bleaching process. The conventional bleaching process uses chlorine
gas, which generates carcinogenic pollutants known as dioxins. In the new
technology, nascent oxygen replaces chlorine as the bleaching agent.
Of the big players, only ITC has completely switched to the chlorine free
bleaching process. The company has invested Rs 227 crore at its Bhadrachalam
plant to adopt the new technology. "The others are in the pro-cess of
switching over," a source' said.
Many of the user industries too are in the process of switching over to
chlorine-free paper. Companies like Amul and Tetrapak, and ice cream
manufacturers like Dinshaws and Vad.ilal, are already using chlorine free
paper for their packaging.
"FMCG majors like HLL, P&G and Godrej are also expec-ted to do so
this year," a source said, adding that pharmaceutical firms were among
the first to switch to chlorine-free paper.
The annual paper board requirement of the domestic packaging industry is
nine lakh tonne, of which ITC produces two lakh tonne.
The other players, including Ballarpur industries, West Coast and JK Paper,
make about 6.5 lakh tonne while the remaining 50,000 tonne is imported. (The
Times of India, Mumbai, 29.04. 2003).
Abstracts Of Interesting Articles
S. Kittelberger and G. Sacripante Easily Deinkable Toner: a
Solution to the Deinking Problem for Small Mills. Pulp & Paper
Canada (2003), 104;5
Abstract: In spite of recent advances in mechanical
deinking, the problem for mixed office waste continues, especially for small
mills without complex process flowsheets. The difficulties associated with
deinking xerographic or laser prints are described. A new deinking process
based on a toner reformulation is described. The toner binder resin is
modified to give it weak acidic properties. This allows toner ink specks to
disintegrate under caustic repulping conditions and enable easy washing or
flotation. Pilot scale results demonstrating these effects are presented and
discussed.
Catherine A. L. Rae. Assessment of Fillers for Opacity Improvement
of Printing Papers - A Combination of Theory and Laboratory Studies.
Appita Journal (2003),56;3: 234-37
Abstract: Opacity is an important property of fine papers.
Increased opacity was desired at an Australian paper mill and two main
options were available: to use a finer ground calcium carbonate (GCC) filler
or to mix some calcined clay with the current GCC. Evaluation of the
proposed options involved a series of experiments in which the absorption
and scattering coefficients were determined for a particular pulp and four
fillers. It was shown that it was possible to predict the results for a
mixture of fillers using the results for the individual fillers. These
results showed that the most suitable option for achieving the desired
opacity increase was to include some calcined clay with the current GCC. The
experimental data closely predicted the results of a subsequent machine
trial, validating the method used. A small amount of Excaliber calcined clay
is now used in lightweight products to achieve the desired opacity.
T. Klemz and M. Swayne Improving Drying Efficiency in the Board
Mill: Combining Infrared With Conventional Systems. Pulp &
Paper Canada (2003), 104;5
Abstract: This paper looks at the use of short-wave
infrared on the board machine and the benefits of moisture redistribution in
the sheet in terms of quality and production increases. The use of zoned
short-wave infrared both as an improvement to the product quality and as a
catalyst for the entire paper machine are explored. The use of short-wave
infrared to redistribute the water from the central plies of the sheet to
the surface fibres to reinvigorate the performance of the cylinders
following the application is also looked at.
Castro, C…et.al. Thermogravimetric Determination of Synthetic
Polymers in Recycled Pulp Systems and Deposits. Journal of Pulp and
Paper Science, (2003), 29; 5.
Abstract: It is well known that synthetic polymers are
often a major component of stickies deposits which reduce papermachine
runnability and the quality of the paper produced. In this paper, we propose
a new thermogravimetric technique for the determination of synthetic
polymers in pulp, paper, process water and deposits. The technique is based
on the observation that the pyrolysis in nitrogen of the major synthetic
polymers such as ethylenevinyl acetate, polyvinyl acetate and styrene
butadiene rubber takes place at higher temperatures than those of natural
polymers in wood fibres. A case study at a mill is used to demonstrate the
applicability of the method for identifying the origin of the stickies
problem.
Hubbe, M. A...et.al. Changes to Unbleached Kraft Fibers Due to
Drying and Recycling. Progress in Paper Recycling, (2003),12;3.
Abstract: Drying of unbleached Kraft pulp in the
laboratory revealed two main stages in its response to increasing
temperature of drying. The first stage was characterized by significant
decreases in water retention value, capacity to adsorb a cationic polymer
dry strength, and apparent density of hand sheets formed after re-slurring
the pulp with no additional treatment. These changes, which were independent
of the drying temperature, were attributed to the action of capillary forces
in the closure of micro-pores in the cell wall during the initial drying.
The second stage was characterized by further significant decreases in all
of the same parameters when drying temperatures became as high as 150 to
1750C. In addition high-temperature drying also resulted in a loss of
molecular mass of the cellulose, as revealed by viscosity tests.
Surprisingly, neither cellulose molecular mass nor water retention was
affected to a significant extent by the value of pH prior to drying, within
a range of 3 to 8. The results suggest that whereas some irreversible
changes in fiber properties are unavoidable during conventional papermaking
practices, further losses in the bonding ability of unbleached kraft fibers
can be caused by over-drying.
Geng, Xinglian….et.al. Effects of Two Cellobiohvdrolases, Cbha
And Celk, from Clostridium thermocellum, on Deinking of Recycled Mixed
Office Paper. Progress in Paper Recycling, (2003),12;3.
Abstract: Deinking effects of two cellobiohvdrolases, CbhA
and CeIK, from Clostridium thermocellum, on mixed office paper (MOP) were
studied. Treatments of MOP with both CbhA and CelK followed by a lot
floatation process, increased the residual ink area and the number of'
residual ink particles compared to non-enzymetic treated. CbhA decreased
deinking effects to a greater extent than CeIK. CbhA was more effective in
hydrolyzing cellulose and released a higher amount of reducing sugars into
the pulp slurry than CelK. The family 3 cellulose binding domain at the C
terminus of CbhA likely plays an important role in higher hydrolytic
activity of CbhA. Treatment of MOP by CbhA and CelK did not significantly
affect the tear and tensile strengths. The inability of both CbhA and CelK
to substantially modify fiber structures is likely to make both enzymes
ineffective for facilitating ink removal from MOP.
Research
& Development
