Paper Technology International 2020 - Journal - Page 102

PAPERTECHNOLOGYINTERNATIONAL
GOING FULL CIRCLE Sulfuric Acid Production for Puma I and II
Jaakko Martikainen, Business Development Manager, ANDRITZ
INTRODUCTION:
Brazilian pulp and paper giant Klabin is further closing the circular sustainability loop at its Puma I and Puma II projects in the
south of the country. Soon it will be making its own sulfuric acid from captured non-condensable gases at its Ortigueira mill site. ANDRITZ
expertise is paving the way.
“Sustainability issues and the latest innovations go hand
in hand at Klabin,” says Francisco Razzolini, Klabin’s Director of
Industrial Technology, Innovation, Sustainability and Projects. “They
are part of our everyday agenda at the company.”
As part of its ongoing circular sustainability strategy, Klabin
recently ordered a sulfuric acid plant from ANDRITZ for its Ortigueira
mill, which will be the first of its kind in the pulp industry globally.
The plant has been designed to produce 150 tons of commercial
grade (>98%) sulfuric acid per day from concentrated odorous
gases (CNCG) and elemental sulfur. The plant will supply the
company’s Puma I and Puma II pulp lines and will allow the mill to
be completely self-sufficient in sulfuric acid. The technology for the
plant, which uses the wet-gas sulfuric acid (WSA) process, has been
developed by Danish company Haldor Topsoe, which has more than
150 references across many industries.
“We are constantly looking for ways to use by-products
generated at our mills and some of the most important ones are
the sulfur-containing gases,” says Razzolini. “These are usually
problematic, and we need to use special burners in the boilers, lime
kilns, or flares to get rid of them as they are odorous and can cause
unpleasant smell”.
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Puma II – The Perfect Opportunity
Klabin’s ideal course of action was to find a way of using
the sulfur-containing gases instead of burning them. “We have
been investigating ways of using these gases for some years now,”
continues Razzolini. “We now already have the Puma I project
producing 1.6 million tonnes of pulp a year and with Puma II starting
up soon we will have a mill producing a total of 2.5 million tonnes
a year. That is a lot of pulp needing a lot of sulfuric acid for our
production process needs.
“The coming start-up of Puma II has given us the perfect
opportunity and is the perfect moment to include the sulfuric acid
plant as part our project package. It means we are going even
deeper into the circular aspects of our business and this adds to
the wide range of chemicals we are already recovering from our
production processes.”
Figure 1: Status of the on-site
construction works in May.

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