Large volumes of water are used in a typical deinking plant. The effluent water streams come with various treatment challenges and significant variability in quality. Reuse of this water back in the process is critical to the sustainability of operations.
Usage of recycled paper and deinked pulp is a popular trend across the paper making industry. The economics and sustainable nature of recycling is very compelling for many paper makers. With the use of deinked pulp also comes the challenge of treating and reusing the water used in the deinking plant.
HABER’s turbidity control program built on top of the eLIXA platform is helping a large paper maker effectively recycle its effluent from the deinking plant back into the process. Prior to implementing the solution, with variations in furnish quality, the plant experienced wild swings in performance in the deinking plant DAF (dissolved air flotation) centrate. The centrate could not be recycled back in the system and when it was tried, resulted in stickies issues due to agglomeration of fines and subsequently poor paper machine runnability. The highly turbid effluent with high anionic trash content was very difficult to treat consistently. Significant cost of fresh water and discharge limitations were some of the other constraints.
Sustainable operations are critical to all industries today. In this extremely competitive environment, efficient operations are also very critical. The customer was interested in a solution which was both cost effective and reduced their environmental footprint significantly with no disruption to its continuous operations. This meant a solution that reacted to stress in real time and delivered results with the least possible variability irrespective of variability of input. The customer wanted to continue to use a variety of furnish based on economics and market conditions.
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HABER’s turbidity control program was best suited to the situation. Chemical preparation and selection was automated reducing manual input and minimizing operational costs. Real-time monitoring and control built on the AI platform meant the system knew when stresses were going to occur and how to react ahead of time. Also the intuitive dashboards offered streams of intelligence to the plant leadership team. The solution could also be integrated to the existing SCADA, meaning data was available in real time through multiple channels – SCADA, web based dashboards, and alerts. In the future data and control of the ETP can be integrated to the existing control system allowing for an integrated single point control solution.
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The solution has resulted in worry free operations of the deinking plant and total reuse of treated water with no adverse impact on downstream operations. The stickies problem and paper machine runnability issue has been completely resolved. Turbidity of DAF centrate is now controlled tightly within the desired parameters. Variation in furnish no longer results in variation in centrate turbidity. Automated monitoring and control has also resulted in lower chemical consumption and related costs.
Understanding the complex process needs and complex water loops in the paper industry through a mechanical, operational and chemical approach is critical in the solution development. HABER’s standardized turbidity control solution is best suited for the paper making industry and industries with high variability in effluent quality. HABER’s solution requires little to no customization resulting in quicker implementation and value delivery.
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