Papierfabrik Palm upgrades deinking facility
Electricity consumption halved after rebuild
2014-09-04 - An upgrade at Papierfabrik Palm’s Eltmann mill in Germany has transformed its deinking plant into a state-of-the-art facility. The rebuild of the stock preparation unit, which took just six days, was carried out by Voith in the month of April. It allowed Palm to substantially improve the efficiency of the facility. In the flotation section alone, electricity consumption per metric ton paper produced fell from 60 to 35 kW hours.
In Eltmann, near Bamberg, the Palm mill produces 540,000 metric tons of newsprint per year of 100% recovered paper on two paper machines supplied by Voith. By modernizing the stock preparation unit for the PM 1, which has been in operation for 20 years, the paper manufacturer aimed to increase cost efficiency and meet the increasing requirements for paper quality. Its goals were to substantially reduce electricity consumption and improve efficiency and quality.
LowEnergyFlotation and EcoMizer Technology. The key elements of the upgrade project were a new flotation unit with LowEnergyFlotation and conversion of the cleaner system to EcoMizer technology. LowEnergyFlotation technology (LEF), developed by Voith, enables a significant reduction in energy use when removing printing inks from the fibers. Last October, the technology was declared the winner in the category “Technology Improvement R&D” by the European Recovered Paper Council.
The EcoMizer technology for cleaners improves cleaning efficiency and reduces fiber loss and energy consumption. In addition, Voith installed a new OnEfficiency DIP control system in the facility, which improves yields.
Rebuilt and commissioned in just six days. One of the requirements stipulated at the project planning stage was to keep the downtime to a minimum. The complete rebuild including commissioning was supposed to take just six days, a mere three days longer than a routine shutdown. The ambitious deadline was met, an excellent performance by everyone involved, given that these were not small components that were being installed. The complete flotation deinking system in stainless steel is 40 meters long and weighs 90 metric tons. To keep downtime short, the flotation cells were pre-assembled outdoors while paper production was still running. At the same time, the production hall roof was opened, and mobile cranes lifted the complete flotation cells into the hall. The entire process went smoothly, as the customer confirms. Mill manager Andreas Reichert is also delighted about the outcome of the rebuild: “We are only using half as much power. This investment allows us to stay competitive and has secured 240 jobs at this site.”//
Voith scope of supply
• New flotation system with LowEnergyFlotation technology (LEF)
• ICP InjectaPumps
• OnEfficiency DIP control concept
• New EcoDirect dispersing system
• Cleaner system converted to EcoMizer technology