The Recovery Division is a global leader in the supply of systems, processes, and equipment used in chemical recovery processes in pulp mills. The products of the Division include chemical recovery boilers, evaporation plants, effluent evaporators, NCG systems, and TMP heat recovery systems.
The Recovery Division’s major activities are located in Kotka and Varkaus, Finland, with significant operations in Brazil, Sweden, and the USA.
The Recovery Division saw a very favorable business development in 2004. Much of the business activity was in South America, but market improvement in North America and Russia is also promising.
The evaporation plant for Arauco’s Valdivia mill in Chile was successfully started up in March.
There is significant customer interest in the Andritz High Energy Recovery Boiler (HERB), which has been a focus of the Division’s R&D program for several years. The technology has proven itself in commercial-scale installations - most notably the world’s largest recovery boiler at UPM-Kymmene’s Pietarsaari mill in Finland. The boiler started up in April, exactly on schedule. It is rated at 4,450 tons of dry solids per day, and has the capacity to fire 600 MW per day of biofuel with virtually no fossil carbon dioxide emissions. The next step towards Advanced HERB is implemented in the new SCA/Östrand recovery boiler with higher steam values to increase the power output.
In addition to the Pietarsaari project, the Division also started up the recovery island for Zellstoff Stendal GmbH of Germany in July. This recovery island is capable of meeting the tightest environmental regulations using up-to-date technologies developed by Andritz.
In August, the Division started up a rebuilt evaporation plant and new chemical recovery boiler for Neusiedler’s Ruzomberok mill in Slovakia. A new evaporation plant for Mondi Paper’s Richards Bay mill in the Republic of South Africa was started up in September.
The evaporation plant and recovery boiler rebuilds at Portucel Tejo in Portugal were started up in October.
The recovery boiler at Portucel Soporcel successfully started up in December. This project included the first chlorine and potassium removal system delivered by Andritz.
- The Division received an order for a new recovery boiler at Portucel’s Cacia mill in Portugal. The capacity of the boiler is 1,300 tds/d and it will replace two older, smaller boilers.
- A new 3,800 tds/d recovery boiler featuring a Vertical Air™ system is included in the major EPC pulp mill order from CMPC Santa Fe in Chile.
- Andrah Pradesh Paper Mills (APPM) ordered a recovery boiler and evaporation plant from the joint venture Enmas-Andritz in India.
- SCA ordered a new 3,300 tds/d recovery boiler and an evaporation plant retrofit for their Östrand mill in Sweden. The boiler will utilize state-of-the-art HERB technology with high pressure and temperature.
- A new recovery boiler for Weyerhaeuser’s Valliant, Oklahoma mill in the USA will incorporate HERB technology.
- Metsä-Botnia’s Kaskinen mill in Finland selected Andritz to retrofit an existing recovery boiler.
- JSC Kotlas Pulp & Paper of Russia ordered a new six-effect evaporation plant. This is the first new evaporation plant to be installed in Russia in over a decade.
- Weyerhaeuser ordered a recovery boiler upgrade for their Springfield, Oregon mill in the USA.
- JSC Neusiedler Syktyvkar ordered a recovery boiler retrofit for their Syktyvkar mill in Russia.
- Frantschach Swiecie in Poland ordered an upgrade to its existing Andritz evaporation plant to increase the dry solids content of the black liquor to 80%.
- VCP in Brazil selected Andritz to perform the modernization work for its evaporation plant and recovery boiler at the Luiz Antonio mill.
Chloride removal is becoming more important as mills close their chemical circulation loops to reduce emissions to the environment. A new, low cost alternative for Ash Recrystallization (ARC) using a leaching process is being developed. The leaching process removes chlorine from the fly ash of the recovery boiler. Pilot tests at the Wisaforest mill in Finland are demonstrating the success of this process for removing chlorides from the chemical circulation in the pulp mill.
Another increasing need is the ability to split the steam condensates from the evaporation process into separate streams in order to facilitate their proper reuse or treatment. A development study has been conducted by the Division to improve the calculation model for condensate segregation and to predict the quality of secondary condensate in order to meet performance guarantees.
The new giant evaporation plant at UPM-Kymmene's Wisaforest mill in Pietarsaari is the first one in the world having a steam condensate optimization to four fractions using integrated condensate segregation allowing most effective re-utilization of the condensates in mill processes.
Intensive material research has been continued to select safe and cost-effective construction materials for evaporators. Research has especially concentrated on selecting materials for evaporators operating at high concentrations and temperatures.
Development of software to model the heat transfer and fluid streams of the recovery furnace (CFD Modeling) is continuing in order to predict furnace behavior and performance. The accuracy of CFD Modeling has been compared with field measurements and the pre-processing time has been cut in half.
The Division has done considerable development work to minimize emissions from recovery boilers (particularly NOx emissions) and to improve the reliability and safety of the boiler. The chemical recovery boiler at UPM-Kymmene’s Pietarsaari mill included several innovations. The Andritz Vertical Air System™ for the first time includes a two-level spraying arrangement of black liquor. This will further decrease NOx emissions in the flue gas. Also, a virtual dynamic simulator was included in the recovery boiler plant delivery. The simulation is so realistic that operators cannot tell the difference between a simulated operation and the actual process.
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