Low consistency refining of mechanical pulp — system design

Many mechanical pulping mills use low consistency (LC) refining for energy efficient fiber development. In this study, energy efficiency and pulp quality were evaluated for six processes, of which four included LC refining. We studied two different types of chip refiners – single disc (SD) and double disc (DD) – with LC refining in the main and reject lines. All process combinations have been used in the Holmen Paper Braviken mill, Sweden, to make thermomechanical pulp for printing papers. LC refining was more energy efficient than high consistency (HC) refining at certain tensile index increases in all evaluated combinations. LC refining in the main line had somewhat higher energy efficiency than did LC refining in the reject line. The type of chip refiner (DD or SD) did not affect the efficiency or pulp property development in LC refining. The process with a combination of DD chip refining and LC refining had the highest energy efficiency (tensile index at certain specific energy consumption). All processes with LC refining produced pulp with somewhat lower light scattering and fiber length than did the corresponding system with only HC refining. Thus, for printing papers, the best combination was LC refining with DD chip refining. LC refiners seem to have a narrow range in specific energy for maximum energy efficiency and a good balance between tensile index increase and fiber length reduction. Much higher specific energy was applied on reject pulp. However, the reject share was only around 30%. The LC refining specific energy, based on main line production, was around 80 kWh/air-dried metric ton (a.d. metric ton), whereas up to 180 kWh/a.d. metric ton was applied in main line.