ENZYMES
As energy costs continue to climb, recycled tissue producers
are seeking ways to reduce energy usage. ENZYMATIC DEINKING
TECHNOLOGIES (EDT) offers innovative, mill-tailored solutions
to this growing problem, the company says.
With the use of EDT’s
products, natural enzyme mechanisms can be leveraged to improve
the papermaking process, which can result in substantial reductions
in energy usage. EDT’s Enzynk® and Refinase® products
have enabled mills to improve tissue/towel production, increasing
quality while offering multiple strategies to reduce energy
through increased pulper defiberization, greater tonnage output,
reduced refining, and reduced drying energy.
One of EDT’s applications enhances pulper action in breaking
down the fiber matrix. This approach shortens pulping time,
which decreases energy usage, as pulping is one of the most
energy-intensive stages in a deink plant. For mills that are
bottlenecked at the pulper, this method is also instrumental
in increasing output. Enhanced fiber yield through reduced
fine screen rejects has also been observed.
Enzymatic deinking has further helped mills increase production
rates while maintaining deinked pulp quality, notably reducing
specific energy cost per ton produced. Energy use is not a
fully variable cost. Many EDT customer applications focus on
this type of fiber modifications that enhance drainage and
increase total output.
In the same vein, EDT uses enzymatic treatments to ‘clean’ fibers
to be more conducive to hydrogen bonding, thus strengthening
the sheets. Because final tissue sheet strength is an important
driver for the level of refining energy imparted to the stock,
mills can decrease refining energy without compromising sheet
strength and can also consider options to degrade furnish use
and cost to varieties that would provide less strength.
Also significant in driving energy use per ton are dewatering
and drying dynamics. EDT uses enzymatic treatments to enhance
stock drainability and allow steam to escape more readily,
thereby reducing energy use on the machine.
Altogether, the advantages of these tailored enzymatic approaches
have proven to be considerable, saving mills over €10
per ton in energy, and are likely to remain important options
as energy costs continue to escalate.TW
