Filling the Gap - Final Report

Executive Summary As energy prices continue to rise long-term it is very important to come up with suggestions toefficiency-improving solutions based on modifications of the existing refining technology withoutlarge investments. There are several suggestions to relatively large modifications of processsolutions, in design of refiner plate patterns, chip pre-treatment and chip feed strategies to existingrefiners, but these suggestions are often expensive and difficult to implement as the knowledge ofthe mechanisms prevalent in the refiner gap is still insufficient. To help solving this problem FSCN and CIT initiated the research project “Filling the Gap” togetherwith the companies Dametric, Holmen, Metso Paper, Norske Skog, Pöyry, SCA and Stora Enso cofinancedby the Swedish authorities Vinnova and the Swedish Energy Agency. The research projectwas designed with the intension to show how to improve the electric energy efficiency of chiprefining by means of utilizing fundamental knowledge of wood material properties relevant for chiprefining in relation to refining hypotheses and in combination with output variables from new andimproved refining zone measurement methods as; exact gap distance, temperature-, force- and fibrematerial radial distributions combined with the traditional out/in-put variables normally used. Thepotential of the above mentioned ideas as well as the specific goal of this project was to show how toreach 25% efficiency improvement in existing refiners and at the same time reduce refiner causedstops by >50% and plate wear also by >50%. The data produced within the project was utilized in two ways: 1. To optimize refining conditions in a static way, i.e. optimization of conditions to maximizeenergy efficiency to reach the functional fibre properties aimed for. 2. To maximize process stability and minimize quality variations at the functional fibreproperties aimed for. The general conclusion from the project is that we can show that there are great opportunities toimprove electric energy efficiency in refining according to the goal by means of using the abovementioned measurement techniques. More specifically the full-scale trials performed during theperiod 2010 – beginning of 2013 showed the possibility to improve the electric energy efficiency by25% at similar functional properties of the pulp, i.e. a reduction in electricity consumption by 20%. Inorder to implement similar strategies in other TMP or CTMP lines it will just as in this case benecessary to use the same measurement system and evaluation techniques together with verythorough and statistically well controlled pulp/fibre evaluation techniques. It would of course beinteresting to implement the same techniques on as many other production lines as possible withinthe participating companies, but it must be emphasized that the procedure is very demanding. Eachproduction line needs to perform a corresponding detailed process analysis as the one performed inthe mill case study of this research project. Furthermore it would also be necessary to utilize therefiner gap measurement techniques, especially the combination of temperature profile and gapdistance measurements, in a modern but still simple process control system making it easier for theoperator to continuously run the process in a more energy efficient mode. Implementation of thetechniques evaluated in pilot scale within this research project, i.e. fibre distribution and force3distribution measurements, would of course have potential to further improve the process efficiencyas well as improve the fibre property level.Fillling the Gap - Förbättrad energieffektivitet och kvalitetsstablilitet vid tillverkning av mekanisk mass