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New Section: The World of the Eucalyptus
The Eucalyptus in Portugal

Portugal is considered the European gateway due to its strategic location, in the utmost western point of the Iberian peninsula. Thanks to this location and sense of adventure, the Portuguese were able to develop great navigators in the 1500s, and to discover Brazil. To know more about this fantastic country, visit the website "Atlas of Portugal", created by the Geographical Institute of Portugal (http://62.48.187.117/atlas/index1.asp).

With a geographical position so favorable, nothing more natural that the eucalyptus could reach Portugal very early in the history. They found there a good climate and nice reception to grow in area and in economic importance. Eucalyptus plantations and products are today important economic resources in Portugal. The Eucalyptus globulus is the dominant eucalyptus species in Portugal. The Portuguese people are very proud of this species. It has important and very good quality for the manufacture of essential oils, wood veneer, pulp, paper and manufactured solid products from the wood. E.globulus (or blue gum as it is known in the origin region) is originated from Tasmania / Australia. The eucalyptus arrived in Europe thanks to the European scientific expeditions to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. The scientists in that time became very attracted by the silver shade of the E.globulus young leaves, by the type of bark with colored drawings, and by the nice odor of its essential oils present in the leaves. E.globulus seeds were them brought to be planted in the most important European botanic gardens. The eucalyptus were also attractive as wood source. For these reasons, the eucalyptus scattered and disseminated along the Mediterranean coast, including Portugal. Although there are few documented registers of the initial planting of eucalyptus in Portugal, there are evidences that they entered in Portugal somewhat from 1850 to 1870. Besides E.globulus, there is another eucalyptus species more recommended to poorer soils and drier climates in Portugal: E.camaldulensis. Today, there are about 670.000 hectares of eucalyptus plantations in Portugal. However, the diversity in quality and productivity is very huge, although there are many efforts in genetic improvements for the E.globulus. The forest growth rate for the E.globulus in Portugal varies from 15 to 25 m³/ha.year. There are forest stands with even better productivity, but this is not the rule. Despite the fact that the Portuguese forest productivity is not compared with the Brazilian plantation yields, the species has very good advantages: the wood density is high and the wood lignin content very low for eucalyptus. Even better, the quality of this lignin is favorable for easier cooking and bleaching in pulp manufacture. The result of these unique properties is that E.globulus is perhaps the most admired eucalyptus species for pulping and papermaking, due to the easy processing and the yields that are possible to be reached. There are studies being performed in Portugal for hybridization of E.globulus with other more productive species. Cloning may be a good opportunity to improve forest yield with similar industrial performance and quality. There is a lot of activity being applied to forest genetics by the Portuguese eucalyptus-based industries. One of the well known centers of investigation in this respect is RAIZ - Institute of Forest and Paper Investigation, a scientific organization with strong partnership with the industry (http://www.raiz-iifp.pt).

Portugal has always claimed to be the first country outside Australia to have had the privilege to produce bleached kraft pulp from 100% eucalyptus wood as raw material. There are laboratory studies in Portugal using eucalyptus woods for pulping since 1906. Several pulping processes have been evaluated with eucalyptus wood: bisulfite, sulfite, cold soda, kraft, etc. The industrial conversion of eucalyptus wood to kraft pulp in Portugal happened for the first time in April 1957. Companhia Portuguesa de Celulose (Portucel - Cacia, Aveiro municipality) was able to manufacture bales of eucalyptus bleached kraft pulp with 85ºGE brightness and to sell this pulp to paper producer customers in Portugal and England. The production in that year reached 60 tons of baled pulp. In 1958, the Cacia mill could increase the yearly production of eucalyptus pulp to 9600 tons of bleached product. From that time onwards, the production has always raised, placing Portugal as an important supplier of pulp and paper products manufactured from the eucalyptus.

The Portuguese forest

Portugal has about 3.2 million hectares of forests, being the following the main species planted for economic purposes: maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), sobreiro or corticeira (Quercus suber), azinheira (Quercus ilex), Mediterranean stone pine (Pinus pinea) and the eucalyptus (E.globulus). One of the most important Portuguese problems with regard to the country forests are the forest fires. The dry weather in some regions of the country definitively favor this disaster, that has damaged so much the forests in Portugal in the recent years.

Know more about the Portuguese forests in the following links:

Forestry and forests in Portugal:

http://62.48.187.117:80/atlas/Cap3/Cap3b_6.html

http://www.naturlink.pt/canais/Artigo.asp?iArtigo=2116&iLingua=1

http://www.celpa.pt/index.php?id=3&article=206&visual=1

http://ine-lnx01.ine.pt/ngt_server/attachfileu.jsp?look_parentBoui=102867&att_display=n&att_download=y

Forest statistics for Portugal:

http://floresta.isa.utl.pt/gegref/estatisticas.htm

Forest areas in Portugal:

http://www.abolsamia.pt/newsletters/40/media/076.pdf

The forestry cycle:

http://www.celpa.pt/images/articles/199/ciclo_floresta.pdf

Portugal country report by the FAO Forestry Department:

http://www.fao.org/forestry/site/18308/en/prt

Why to invest in forestry in Portugal:

http://www.investinportugal.pt:80/NR/rdonlyres/A72A871E-9E8F-49F9-B7CF-2D7072F167B0/
0/FernandodaCostaLima.pdf

The eucalyptus in Portugal:

http://www.celpa.pt/images/articles/213/art213_eucalipto.pdf

The maritime pine (pinheiro bravo):

http://www.scielo.oces.mctes.pt/scielo.php?pid=S0870-63522004000200002&script=sci_arttext

The Mediterranean stone pine (pinheiro manso):

http://www.naturlink.pt/canais/Artigo.asp?iArtigo=206&iCanal=1&iSubCanal=3196&iLingua=1

The sobreiro or corticeira (Quercus suber):

http://www.naturlink.pt/canais/artigo.asp?iCanal=1&iSubCanal=11&iArtigo=1988&iLingua=1

The azinheira (Quercus ilex):

http://www.naturlink.pt/canais/Artigo.asp?iArtigo=167&iLingua=1

FSC - Forest Stewardship Council Certification Report about the forests of the Caima Company :

http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/librarytitles/2097E.HTMl/$file/RT-FM-001
03%20Silvicaima%20MA%20Report%20FINAL.xls

CELBI forest management plan for forest certification purposes:

http://rainforestalliance.org/programs/forestry/smartwood/documents/celulose_beira.pdf

The Eucalyptus globulus in Portugal

We know very well the admiration and care the Portuguese foresters and forest sector devote to the E.globulus. This is completely understandable. Nothing more natural than the will to do this species even better by forest breeding. There are several euca-links showing the status of E.globulus forestry and the main drivers for the eucalyptus forest breeding programs in Portugal.

A video conference about E.globulus (A speech in Spanish by Dr. Nuno Borralho - a software of the type Media Player is required to be able to reproduce the speech)

http://tv.uvigo.es/VODpublic/ASX/forestales/Simposio_eucalyptus-06.asx

About E.globulus in Portugal

http://www.investinportugal.pt/NR/rdonlyres/CBE1F4A3-84DE-4E92-9BDC-C70BF1BF4913/0/SerafimTavares.pdf

http://www.eurosilvasur.net/pdf/globulus.pdf

Forest improvements and tree breeding of E.globulus in Portugal

http://www.portalflorestal.com/Uploads/%7B7241A1B3-384F-42C7-9586-7BBAE9AEC96E%7D.doc

http://bosques.cnpf.embrapa.br/node_embrapa/uploads/cgpmxutopo.pdf

http://bosques.cnpf.embrapa.br/node_embrapa/uploads/zqrfdfmduu.pdf

http://www.stba.com.au/documents/greavesetal-breedingobjectivesinEglob.pdf

The Portuguese pulp and paper industry

Portugal is an important producer of market pulp and printing and writing papers using the fibers of the eucalyptus. Its position in these fields is definitively competitive and outstanding. Today, the most important pulp and paper manufacturers in Portugal of these products are:

Portucel/Soporcel group, with mills in Cacia, Figueira da Foz and Setubal
www.portucelsoporcel.com
Celbi - Celulose Beira Industrial
http://www.cotec.pt/COTEC/Redaccao/2005/33/CelbiCeluloseBeiraInterior.htm
Portucel Tejo - Empresa de Celulose do Tejo
www.prime.min-economia.pt/PresentationLayer/ResourcesUser/Notícias/PortucelTejo_CBRANCO_6Maio2005.pdf
Celulose do Caima
www.caima.pt

Know more about the eucalyptus pulp and paper production in Portugal through the links:

http://www.celpa.pt/images/pdf/art209_en_be_2005.pdf

http://www.celpa.pt/?article=209&visual=1

http://www.celpa.pt/images/pdf/importancia_economia.pdf

http://www.celpa.pt/index.php?id=3&article=203&visual=1

http://www.celpa.pt:80/index.php?id=3&article=207&visual=1

http://www.celpa.pt/index.php?id=9

The innovation in the universities and technological institutes in Portugal

Portugal has been very innovative and productive in terms of R&D for the eucalyptus forestry and pulp and paper technologies. Several theses and technical articles are being released, although the few forestry, wood and pulp and paper sector journals/magazines available for publishing technical literature in the country. It is common the presence of very good scientific and technical Portuguese papers in international journals due to this fact. TECNICELPA, the Portuguese Technical Association of Pulp and Paper organizes and promotes an annual congress where many good papers are published about the pulp and paper technology.

The main organizations dedicated to R&D with eucalyptus are:

University of Coimbra, through the College of Sciences and Technology, Chemical Engineering Department (professors Paulo Ferreira, Maria Graca Carvalho, Maria Margarida Figueiredo)

http://www.uc.pt

http://www.fct.uc.pt

http://www.ectep.com/teses/teses/ficha.asp?PnIDFac=4&PnIDEspec=139&PID=85

http://www.ectep.com/teses/teses/ficha.asp?PnIDFac=4&PnIDEspec=139&PID=503

http://www.ectep.com/teses/teses/ficha.asp?PnIDFac=4&PnIDEspec=139&PID=697

http://www.ectep.com/teses/teses/default2.asp?PnIDFac=4

http://www.ectep.com/teses/teses/ficha.asp?PnIDFac=4&PnIDEspec=1013&PID=712

University of Aveiro, through the Departament of Chemistry (professors Carlos Pascoal Neto and Dmitry Victorovitch Evtyugin)

http://www.ua.pt

http://www.ua.pt/dq/PageProf.aspx

In 2004, Aveiro housed the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) event - Eucalyptus in a Changing World, one of the most important events about the eucalyptus in the world scene:

http://www.dgrf.min-agricultura.pt/v4/dgf/pub.php?ndx=822

http://www.iufro.org

University Tras os Montes and Alto Douro (with its well known College of Forestry and Wood Technology Laboratory)

http://www.utad.pt/pt/departamentos/aca/florestal/index.html

http://home.utad.pt/~floresta/

http://home.utad.pt/~jlousada/

University of the Beira Interior, through its Department of Paper Science and Technology

http://ubista.ubi.pt/~www-pap

RAIZ- Instituto de Investigacao da Floresta e Papel / Institute of Forest and Paper Investigation

http://www.raiz-iifp.pt

The Portuguese Pulp and Paper Associations

For the pulp and paper segment, we have two main associations in Portugal: one of them is technical (TECNICELPA) and the other institutional / sectorial (CELPA). I've been Tecnicelpa member for the past 10 years. I'm very happy and proud to follow the success being achieved by my dear friends Cesaltina Baptista and Augusto Gois, very dedicated people to the association, adding efforts and value to the association together our former president Carlos Bras, and today's president Paulo Barata. Tecnicelpa has modernized, it has today an attractive website, a new publication and a very interesting newsletter with the summary of technical papers.

Visit Tecnicelpa at:

www.tecnicelpa.com

The institutional and sector association is CELPA - Paper Industry Association. In Celpa website there are very good pieces of information about Portugal and the pulp and paper sector and related businesses. Visit and know Celpa at:http://www.celpa.pt/index.php

Technical Journals

Silva Lusitanica

http://www.scielo.oces.mctes.pt/cgibin/wxis.exe/iah/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&base=
article^dslu&format=iso.pft&lang=p&limit=0870-6352

Pasta e Papel

n.pelletier@wanadoo.fr

nicolas.pelletier@groupenp.com

New Section: The Friends of the Eucalyptus
Dr. Herbert Sixta

I have the privilege to introduce to you someone I have in high level of estimation, and also one of the most respected technical and scientific person we have in the pulp and paper world. Dr. Herbert Sixta is Austrian, but he has a very strong link with Brazil, and with the eucalyptus. He studied chemistry at the University of Innsbruck, and he got his Ph.D. in 1982. After that, Dr. Sixta started to work with an Austrian company, Lenzing AG, one of the world leaders in the production of dissolving pulps and regenerated cellulosic fibers. In this pulp company, he could dedicate an important time of his life studying the chemistry of the wood and pulp components. For this reason, Sixta knows very much the fundamentals of the wood and pulp carbohydrates, lignin, extractives and minor constituents. His dedication to the science and technology is enormous. He knows, as few people in the world, to associate science in its most advanced level, to the practical applications of the pulp technologies. He has been very active in researching natural polymers, macromolecules, lignocellulosic materials, cell wall structure and cellulose regeneration to the manufacture of fibers. When Lenzing decided to introduce itself as an environmentally friendly company in Europe, and leader in such kind of issues, the R&D program was directed also to TCF bleaching and to other pulping processes, with focus in organosolv-like pulping. Sixta started to study the ECF and TCF bleaching processes, new ways to delignify and to manufacture pulp, and the optimization of the filaments / yarn production based on cellulose derivatives (as Lyocell, a new fiber developed by Lenzing). As a result, several papers have been published by his group in this respect, and patents have been granted. In parallel to his R&D activities at Lenzing, Dr. Sixta also has classes and lectures in several universities (Graz, Linz, Vienna)

The first Sixta contact with the eucalyptus goes back to late 80's, when he made to me a request for pre-hydrolysis kraft pulping data in Riocell. At that time, Riocell was an important dissolving pulp manufacturer in the world scene, utilizing the wood from eucalyptus and black wattle (Acacia mearnsii). Since Lenzing established a research priority in the pre-hydrolysis kraft pulping process and in the eucalyptus, Sixta and his team started to also focus their programs in these issues. The first of his projects with the eucalyptus was co-advising a thesis by Mrs. Gabriele Schild, a study for comparing several pulping process with the woods of eucalyptus (pre-hydrolysis kraft, pre-hydrolysis ASAM, pre-hydrolysis soda AQ, and acid sulfite).

In early 90's, the Austrian Lenzing and the Brazilian Klabin decided to join forces to revitalize a pulp mill in Brazil, former Celulose da Bahia, converting this facility to the production of bleached dissolving pulp. A joint venture was created for the production of TCF bleached pre-hydrolysis kraft pulp from the eucalyptus. The Bacell project was born for this achievement. From 1992 till the pulp mill start up in 1996, a research group was created, including technical people from Lenzing, Klabin and Riocell. Some of the group members: Taavi Siuko, Alberto Lima, Walter Peter, Vera Maria Sacon, Herbert Sixta and Celso Foelkel. It was like a "tsunami" in terms of knowledge development. The great involvement of all our people with suppliers, customers, universities, technical institutes powered fantastic developments in terms of creativeness and new developments. After Bacell mill starting up, Sixta extended his participation in this project, working for mill process optimizations and to develop added value new pulp grades to Bacell, orienting products to the manufacture of Lyocell and cellulose acetate. Unfortunately, from this time onwards, I was somewhat distant from this process. Few months later, I left Riocell to start my own business and my contacts with Sixta and Bacell became scarce. Today, our ways are usually crossed in international conferences or by reading papers written by each other.

From 1998 until 2000, Dr. Sixta was directly involved in an European Union project on comparative evaluation of different concepts of organosolv pulping for dissolving pulps, where several pulping processes were tested on different European hardwoods. The project had the leadership of the University of Hamburg. The pulping processes that have been tested were the following: Acetosolv, Formacell, Milox and some variations of the acid sulfite process. One of the woods under investigation was the one from E.globulus coming from the Spanish ENCE. Clearly, E.globulus gave superior dissolving pulps over all other hardwood species, both in quality and yield. In the years from 2000 to 2004, Dr. Sixta headed several projects where the use of different eucalyptus species (from Asia and South America origin) were thoroughly investigated for the manufacture of paper and dissolving grade pulps. Similarly to previous studies, the eucalyptus woods proved to be the preferred hardwood for both types of pulps, when compared to other hardwoods.

From 2004 onwards, in his academic activities, he started to advise two theses about the kinetics of the pulping reactions along the delignification of E.globulus wood, both for paper and dissolving grade processes. The emphasis of these studies were focused on the residual lignin structure, changes in the cellulose ultra-structure and water / pulp interactions.

All this experience with the eucalyptus has been accumulated over 17 years, with many studies, projects, papers, speeches and publications.

At Lenzing, he is the head of the company R&D center. His laboratories are amazing, with very good facilities. Lenzing allows the lab to provide services to third and interested parties, something that deserves to be watched in a glance. Please, have a close look in the Lenzing R&D center in the following online leaflet:
http://www.lenzing.com/zellstoff/media/BroschuereZF2005(1).pdf

Perhaps you may be attracted by some services you are not finding in other places. Remember that this lab is very specialized for studies in molecular architecture of the wood and pulp components.

One of the most significant undertaking in Sixta's career was the recent publication of his magnificent book "Handbook of Pulp", in two volumes . Over 1350 pages, with high standard and quality, describe the pulping science and technologies. Dr.Sixta is the book editor, but he has personally written a great part of the book chapters. These two volumes, recently released to the market by Wiley-VCH, are today the most updated literature about the pulping technology for the wood. According to Herbert, when we were talking about his book, he mentioned to me that he always had his mind turned to Brazil during the time he was writing the chapters about dissolving grade pulps, both pulping and bleaching. Definitively, we had together a great time developing pulping technologies, great to know that this book rewards part of these technological achievements.

Thanks Herbert, for everything you have done and are still doing to the pulp science and technology, in special to the pulping and bleaching areas. Thanks also for your election of the eucalyptus as your preferred wood species for the researches.

Some of the Dr. Sixta's technical papers are available in euca-links as follows:

A novel method for the determination of carbonyl groups in cellulosics by fluorescence labeling. (English)
Parte 01: http://eurocarb12.cermav.cnrs.fr/workshop_PotthastA.pdf
Parte 02: http://pubs.acs.org:80/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/bomaf6/2002/3/i05/abs/bm020030p.html

Preparation and alkaline degradation of model compounds related to branched xylan. (English)
http://eurocarb12.cermav.cnrs.fr/workshop_SartoriJ.pdf

Analysis of extractives from Eucalyptus urophylla by gas chromatography. (English)
http://abra.fkkt.uni-lj.si/fkktstrlic/chrom02/pdf/P/hube_P.pdf

Patente: Process for the chlorine free bleaching of cellulosic materials with ozone. (English)
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5346588.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5346588.html

Determination of extractives in dissolving pulps (Interlaboratory comparison). (English)
http://www.ipwonline.de/download/zellchem/2002/dp050201.pdf

Comprehensive kinetic study on kraft pulping of Eucalyptus globulus. Part 1: Delignification and degradation of carbohydrates (O Papel, 2007) (English and Portuguese)
http://www.celso-foelkel.com.br/artigos/outros/Sixta%20%20kinetics%20kraft%20pulping%
20globulus%20-%20Part%201.pdf

Comprehensive kinetic study on kraft pulping of Eucalyptus globulus. Part 2: Formation and degradation of hexenuronic acid (O Papel, 2007) (English and Portuguese)
http://www.celso-foelkel.com.br/artigos/outros/Sixta%20%20kinetics%20kraft%20pulping%
20globulus-%20Part%202.pdf

Book: Handbook of Pulp (2 volumes) (English)

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-3527309993,subjectCd-CH95,descCd-tableOfContents.html

Book content:

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/93/35273099/3527309993-1.pdf

Chapter on Pulping Chemistry - Introduction (an online demo provided by the publisher):

http://www.wiley-vch.de/templates/pdf/3527309993_c01.pdf

Euca-links (Suggested Websites for your Visit)

CIDEU - Centro de Investigación y Documentación del Eucalipto / Center for Investigation and Documentation of the Eucalyptus
http://www.uhu.es/cideu

CIDEU is a center of research and documentation about the eucalyptus. It is located in Spain. CIDEU is the result of a partnership between the Spanish ENCE pulp company and the University of Huelva. Its mission is to inform the society, in an appropriate manner, about the advantages, uses, technological and scientific achievements and advances about the eucalyptus. Definitively, something very needed, and also useful to all of us, who are friends of the eucalyptus. CIDEU provides support to technical studies, and cooperation in the organization of events and activities close to the communities. It has an online publication (Alerta Informativa) and technical bulletins that may be easily obtained by interested parties. The website is very rich, and it gives the impression that a lot more is to come. The website has also an English version.

Some interesting data and papers that are possible to be read and downloaded at the CIDEU website are:

Text and information about "El eucalipto":
http://www.uhu.es/cideu/texto256.htm (Spanishl)

Bulletin: "Produccion y uso de la madera de especies de rapido crecimiento"/ "Production and utilization of the fast growing wood species":
http://www.uhu.es/cideu/Boletin/Boletin2/SumBoletin2.htm (Spanish)

Technical article: "El eucalipto en la sociedad y el medio forestal"/ "The eucalyptus in the society and at the forest environment", por Jorge Serradilla Santiago:
http://www.uhu.es/cideu/docpdf/RevMontesdelTexto8.pdf (Spanishl)

CEPEA - Centro de Economia Aplicada (Center for Applied Economy) - ESA Luiz de Queiroz - USP

CEPEA is the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economy of ESALQ/USP. It aims to provide support to the Brazilian agribusiness, with studies and projects about applied economy and social issues. Among the different segments of the agribusiness, CEPEA has an excellent section about Forestry and Forest Products. This section coordinator is professor Carlos Jose Caetano Bacha. The website makes available papers and studies, and a very good monthly newsletter about current forest product prices (wood, pulp, paper, saw timber, etc.) in selected regions in Brazil. The website has summarized versions in English, French, Spanish and German.
Please, visit:

The Forestry and Forest Products section:
http://www.cepea.esalq.usp.br/florestal/?id_page=19
Available papers about saw timber:
http://www.cepea.esalq.usp.br/florestal/?id_page=485
The monthly newsletters about forest products prices in Brazil:
http://www.cepea.esalq.usp.br/florestal/?id_page=481

Embrapa Florestas - Centro Nacional de Pesquisa Florestal / National Center for Forestry Research

Embrapa Florestas / Embrapa Forestry is an unit of EMBRAPA- Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (The Brazilian Organization for Agricultural and Zootechnical Research). It is located in Colombo, Parana, Brazil, since 1984, when the National Center for Forestry Research was created. This research unit performs R&D, and provides technical support, information and documentation about Brazilian forests, forest genetic resources and forest products utilization. The website is rich in publications, both for sale or for free download. However, the list of publications is more easily reached when someone uses the search mechanism available in the website. Please, test the search mechanism with the keyword: Eucalyptus. After that, try to find what you may eventually need.

Visit:

Embrapa Florestas website:
http://www.cnpf.embrapa.br
Publications section:
http://www.cnpf.embrapa.br/publica/publica.htm

Professor Dr. Christian Luiz da Silva's website
NOur dear friend professor Dr. Christian Luiz da Silva is one of the most renowned names in the Brazilian applied economic sciences. His expertise is very wide, but he has dedicated a great part of his career studying value and productive chains, associated to segment competitiveness. He has several books published in this respect, and he is one of the few people in Brazil evaluating with sound details the value chain of the Brazilian printing and writing paper sector. To know more about Dr. Silva and his studies and thoughts, please visit his website: http://www.christian-silva.ecn.br

Dr. Christian's articles about the competitiveness and value chain of the Brazilian P&W paper segment are available at:
http://www.christian-silva.ecn.br/papel.htm

Professor Dr. Pedro Fardim's website
Our dear professor Pedro Fardim is one of the bright Brazilian minds and intelligences who have been exported to abroad. However, he continues very much Brazilian, keeping close contact with Brazil, and helping the development of the Brazilian pulp and paper sector. Today, Dr. Fardim works as professor and researcher at Abo University, in Turku / Finland. His expertise are studies about surfaces and charges, among others, those from fibers and papers.

His website provides useful information about the surfaces, chemistry and charges of cellulosic fibers, and the interactions with fibers and fillers.

Have a look on this website, it is really interesting:
http://www.superficies.blogspot.com

Know also the Laboratory of Fibre and Cellulose Technology at the Abo Akademi University: http://www.abo.fi/fak/tkf/tra/index_eng.html

Technical Mini Article by Celso Foelkel

Best Available Technologies and Best Environmental Practices to the Production of Eucalyptus Bleached Kraft Pulps

A Celso Foelkel's viewpoint

Recent and modern pulp mills are being installed in the Southern Hemisphere, using the woods of Eucalyptus and/or Pinus to the manufacture of bleached kraft pulps. Other mills are being built and others are in advanced level of engineering project. All of them are state-of-the-art pulp mills. Surely, there are differences between one and another, but the basic concepts are relatively similar. People working in these pulp mills are very proud of the facilities they have and the performances being achieved. For these reasons, I'm hearing very often the phrase "this is the best and more environmentally friendly mill in the world". I understand the reasons for this exultation and joy. Today's mills are much better than those built in the 80's and 90's: they are more efficient, they have better operational efficiency and better overall performances. However, this feeling that they are "so good and so environmentally friendly" is very dangerous. It has the power to blind the technical people and mill managers to other opportunities to become even better, in the continuous improvements process. Any mill has many other opportunities to become even more environmentally friendly, no doubts about. On the other hand, there is not a single mill in the world that could be labeled "the best bleached kraft pulp mill in the world for environmental reasons": one may be better in a point, another one in other points, and so on. I have even seen some ingenuous pulp company executives and CEOs stating that the mills they manage have no environmental impacts. Really, something so candour that becomes dangerous to the sector. Any pulp mill has an environmental impact: what is important is to know and to control and mitigate it.

Today, the main problem we have to identify the BATs ("Best Available Technologies") or the "best environmental practices" are the reference literatures we have available to list and to define them. The reference documents for doing this are relatively old in this era of fantastic technological developments and innovative scenario.

The document released by the EC - IPPC (European Commission - Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control - Bref 2001 -ftp://ftp.jrc.es/pub/eippcb/doc/ppm_bref_1201.pdf
or http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/ippc/brefs/ppm_bref_1201.pdf) has already more than 5 years. It was published in December 2001, but the draft document submitted for comments was released on February 2000. Another reference document is the guidance report by the World Bank, that lists the best technologies that this bank considers qualified to deserve the bank support in terms of financing the undertaking. This document was released in 1998, it is now out-of-date and in a process of review by the WB and by the IFC - International Finance Corporation
(http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/gui_pulp_WB/$FILE/pulp_PPAH.pdf). Finally, we also have a document submitted by Greenpeace, suggesting what they call the most healthy and cleaner technologies to the pulp sector. This is a controversy document, but it has some operational and technological suggestions that could be better watched and evaluated by the sector
(http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/argentina/contaminaci-n/el-futuro-de-la-producci-n-de.pdf).

Today, there is the consensus that some technologies are vital and indispensable in any new pulp mill or any efficient and competitive undertaking in the bleached pulp segment. They are in reality, technological obligations that a mill need to fulfill to play in this market. We could list the following: modified cooking preceded by pre-impregnation of the wood chips, oxygen delignification, ECF bleaching sequence, efficient washing of the pulp along the fiberline, low odor recovery boiler, multi-stage evaporation plant to concentrate black liquor to about 80% solids, secondary or tertiary wastewater treatment plant, biomass fuel replacing the utilization of fossil fuels, flash drying of the lime mud in the lime kiln area, fluidized bed power boiler, condensate stripping and burning of volatile odorous gases, etc. In my view, all these technologies are merely obligations, they do not give to the mill using them any advantage in relation to the others. All new mills should have them.

However, there are other technologies and practices that are being implemented by some of the modern mills, and other process tecniques in the way of being implemented by someone, that are really differentiated procedures. This mean that we have available today new cleaner and even more effective technologies. Most of these procedures are feasible both technically and economically, they are really cost-effective. New rooms are been discovered and are being used for further improvements in pulp mills, and other are in learning curves. Definitively, we are in a continuous process for environmental improvements, but in some cases, we are obliged to ask for courage to some mill managers and to plant designing engineers. What we need to improve is to use more and more the concepts for cleaner production and eco-efficiency: prevention, reusing, segregating, recycling, closing cycles, and to attack the environmental problem at the origin, in the place it is being generated. Please, just go to the use of end-of-pipe techniques as a complement, and not as a solution. End-of-pipe measures are only costs, they do not represent gains to the company, only expenses. For example, we are still mixing good quality waters with dirt effluents, and for this reason, giant wastewater treatment plants are still being built in the pulp mills. We are still generating a huge tonnage of solid wastes, and landfilling them. They will be always a kind of environmental liability to the company. Most of these solid residues could be incorporated back to the pulp process, or to be converted in valuable by-products. Even not composting or selling these solid wastes to third parties , we could reduce to a minumum their generation, solving the problem at the origin.

I understand that we are plenty of new opportunities to introduce in our pulp mills. They could be added in new mill projects or in existing mills. The mills using them will come closer to the minimum impact concept, according to today's standards. They may be even included "in the group of the best environmentally sound bleached pulp mills in the world". An option for reflection and action. In a simple list, I'm bringing some of these technologies and practices that are not very much stressed or even mentioned in the previous reports about BAT's or best practices. The list will be provided by operational area, and at the end, some overall concepts are also reported.

Wood yard area

Have a paved wood yard for log storage. Wood quality will be better, solid wastes generation will decrease and the water running from this area, even the rain water, will be much better in quality.
Separate the bark, branches and wood residues to use them as biomass fuel. Another option is to compost them as organic matter source together with other mill solid wastes. Please, never discard so valuable material in a landfill.
Use only recovered water in all operations at your wood yard and wood chip preparation areas.

Digesting, pulping and washing area

Wash your pulp very well, with a minimum carry-over of caustic soda and organic matter to the bleaching line. The same washing efficency is welcome in the bleaching line. When engineering your pulp mill, design the washing section with 10 to 15% reserve in capacity in relation to the designed mill capacity.
Recycle back to the process all knots and shives from digesting and screening, using preferably a small batch digester for doing this operation.
Reuse the great majority of the clean condensates from evaporation to wash the unbleached pulp or the pulp in the initial phase of the bleaching line. This means more efficiency in saving water and steam in the mill.

Bleaching line area

Use ECF-Light bleaching sequences, since they allow you better water closure in this area.
Close as much as you can your water cycle, in order to guarantee a maximum of 10m³/adt of total effluent generation from the bleaching line.
Introduce filters for retaining the valuable fibers present in the bleaching line effluents and filtrates. This giant flow of effluent without fibers will become a low solids effluent and does not need to go to a primary clarifier in the wastewater treatment plant.
Recycle the filtrate from Eo or Eop stage to wash the unbleached or delignified pulp. You may reduce your bleaching effluent flow to close to half.
Recover the heat from bleaching line effluents, using heat exchangers implemented at the bleaching area. With this procedure, the raw effluent temperature will be reduced to a level that no additional equipment for temperature reduction will be needed.

Liquor recovery area

Do not purge the electrostatic precipitator ashes to the effluent. Introduce a new system for solubilization and selective crystallization of the sodium chloride.
Engineer your recovery boiler and evaporation plant with 10% minimum extra capacity in relation to designed mill capacity, to cope with emergencies due to spills and/or extra needs for liquor evaporation or solids burning.
In case feasible, have a methanol recovery system and use the methanol as biofuel.
Have a very good stripping column for condensate distillation and separation of volatile and no condensable odorous gases. Do not save money in this system, buy the best.
Burn the non condensable gases in the recovery boiler, but keep a captive burner to be used in case of trips or stops in the recovery boiler operation.
Have a very good system to collect and to burn the low concentration fugitive odorous emissions.
Burn the emissions from the smelt tank in the recovery boiler.
Design your electrostatic precipitators with extra capacity and with a spare chamber. Pulp mills should not have plumes in the recovery boiler, power boiler and lime kiln stacks. Plumes of water steam are only justified in cold and wet days.
Demand the reuse of all clean condensates by the other mill areas. The dirt condensates are also to be used to the manufacture of white liquor.
Have heat exchangers to recover the heat from the hot evaporation condensates.

Power boiler area

Burn the sludges from the wastewater treatment plant in the biomass power boiler. Another option is to compost them.
Have the biomass fuel as dry as possible. Develop a sound management of the biomass, including a suitable and covered storage area. Bark presses are also welcome to improve the calorific value of the biomass.

Chemical plant area

Have a system to recover the sulfuric acid that is present in the sodium sulfate generated as by-product in some chlorine dioxide generation technologies. Doing this, caustic soda and active alkali from black liquor will be saved in the operation.
Have an appropriate system to chill the chlorine dioxide solution.
Do not install a chlorine dioxide generator that also generates elemental chlorine in the manufactured solution.
Develop sales and a market to the sodium hypochlorite, in case this chemical be generated at the chemical plant.

Drying machine area

Segregate the effluents from this area. Do not blend the effluent from the last stage of the centricleaners with the good quality waters that you have in this area. Try to recover and to recycle the residual water from the forming machine at different areas in your pulp mill. It is unacceptable to discard so good water.
Do not throw away good fibers. Recover the fiber losses from this area and give them back to your process.
Avoid unnecessary drainage’s and have a spill tank of good size in this area.

Wastewater treatment management

Segregate the effluents at their origin. Do not blend clean effluents with dirt ones. Clean waters as sealing waters, turbo-generator waters, hydraulic units waters, water from boiler purges, are differentiated in quality. These waters must be recovered to the pulp process, and not discarded to the wastewater treatment plant.
Develop differentiated wastewater treatment to clean effluents. Constructed wetlands is a good choice to some of them. For example: the effluent from the woodyard could deserve this type of treatment, and the treated effluent by this procedure could be recycled back to the process.
Develop sound utilization to the sludges (composting or burning as low quality fuels).
Have secondary biological wastewater treatment as a minimum standard. In case a tertiary treatment be required with flocculation followed by flotation or sedimentation, please, do not forget to add disc filters to recover the micro-flocs that tend to leave the area suspended in the effluent flow.
Have an anoxic zone in the biological secondary treatment. This zone is needed to reduce to close to nil the chlorate ion content in the final effluent.
Have a safety pond, covered by an impermeable membrane, with capacity for 24 hours of operation (minimum). This lagoon is to be utilized only for emergencies in the wastewater treatment plant, and occasionally, when the spill control system does not succeed in retaining the spills in the generating areas.
Do not install in any case, conventional cooling towers to chill the untreated effluent. They throw about 3 to 5% of the effluent flow to the atmosphere, as a foggy plume. Untreated effluent are not supposed to be thrown to the air. The best way to reduce effluent temperature is to recover the heat at the place the heat is being lost. Indirect contact heat exchangers are the preferred type of equipment for this task.

Solid wastes

Develop specifications (moisture content in most cases) for each of the generated solid waste in the mill.
Optimize the sludge pressing. Use the help of blended sawdust to improve this operation efficiency.
Reduce the generation of solid wastes at the origin, in the place they are being generated.
Segregate the solid wastes. Treat them separately, according to the best practices and technologies for each one. Try to discover uses for them at the mill or develop markets for them (raw or processed).
Have a small landfill, to force the solid waste management in the direction of prevention and recycling.

Other measures

Segregate, segregate, segregate.
Prevent, prevent, prevent.
Recover, recover, recover.
Filter and recover the dirt water and sludges from the water treatment plant. Find a suitable use for the sludge from this area.
Have a water pond to receive all the recovered clean waters (sealing, turbo-generators, boiler purge, discarded virgin condensates, etc) and the water from rain (storm water). All these waters are so good that they may replace part of the incoming water taken from the river or water source. Feed the water treatment plant also with these waters.
Have the best-in-the-class spill control and recovery system. Place good size tanks to receive the spills in strategic areas as: recovery boiler (water from the washing procedure of the recovery boiler), causticising, evaporation plant, pulping and washing areas). The first option to the spill is not wastewater treatment plant, this will be the last one.
Do not give option (don't build the ducts) to have industrial effluent in the following areas: digesting, washing, causticising, chemical plant, recovery boiler, power boiler. All collected spills and even the rain water from these areas must be collected and recovered by the own generating area. The only acceptable alternative is to evaporate the spill and to send it to the recovery boiler.
Have a maximum of 20 m³/adt as final effluent. This is quite feasible now-a-days.
Use low sulfur fuels.
Have a very efficient automation for online environmental control and monitoring.
Reduce the generation of water vapor and water fog from your mill. The vapors that are released to the atmosphere from the hot water cooling towers, drying machine, etc, are seen as pollution by the community. Use demisters or try to find equipment’s to do the same job, but without the generation of this type of emissions.

My friends, with these measures being implemented, we are approaching and getting closer to a minimum impact bleached kraft pulp mill: no odor, no noise, little effluent and solid wastes generation. And also, with proud and happy people working in them. This is the 2007 reality. The real world will be different and better in 5 or 10 years more. I promise to provide another list like this in the future, under the new reality to come. Technology and human behavior are improving and changing. These are being the driving forces for mankind: changes.