Methodologies Developed and Applied in Process Integration Studies for the Swedish Kraft Pulp and Paper Industry: A Review

Book chapter, 2012

Process integration tools and methods have been used to analyze the use of energy and other resources in the pulp and paper industry and to identify ways to increase productivity, decrease costs, and address environmental issues. These tools have been used to perform process-integration case studies of pulp mills from 1990 onward in various locations, including the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden. Projects in North America have focused primarily on possibilities to improve resource use in the short and medium terms, while studies in Sweden have been more strategic in nature and have had a more long-term implementation perspective (for strategic decision-making under energy-market uncertainties in future) (IEA, 2004). Depending on technical, geographical, and legal parameters, mill specications differ in terms of the degree of modernization of equipment, water and energy systems, fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and taxation and policy instruments. In this chapter, the interaction between various Kraft pulp specications and the choice of an appropriate process integration method is described, because the heat and water systems in Kraft pulping are more complex than those in other mills such as thermomechanical pulp (TMP) mills.