Eucalyptus Kraft Pulp Refining

This book presents a brief history of papermaking followed by comments regarding wood as a source of fibers, including its chemical and anatomical characteristics and the influence of these aspects on the quality of the pulp produced. In addition, the author describes the effects of the pulping process, mainly a chemical process, on pulp quality and how these wood characteristics influence both the refining process as the quality of the final paper. The book further provides a broad discussion, based on experimental results, on the contribution of the main operating refining variables and the main strategies that can be used industrially to optimize the operating results. From this evaluation, the parameter that complements the specific edge load theory is identified. This parameter is related to the retention time of the fiber flocs inside the refiner.

Vail Manfredi is a retired engineer from the Brazilian pulp and paper industry, where he worked for 28 years in leading global suppliers of bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp, performing Research and Development studies and providing technical support to the commercial area (Customers Technical Assistance).

He is a specialist in eucalyptus pulp refining having published several technical papers on the subject, in addition to giving courses and lectures on the subject in Brazil and abroad.

In this book, the author shares his experience as a researcher and teacher. Based on extensive bibliographical research, scientific result and practical tips for optimizing the eucalyptus pulp refining process are presented.

We highlight the identification and description of the ’missing variable’ in the theory of the Specific Edge Load Theory, and, the proposal of an alternative to disc refiner configuration allowing the reduction on refining energy costs.