Effluents From Pulp Mills Using Bleaching PDF Download

Conservation of water in bleached kraft pulp mills by recycling the bleach plant effluent directly without treatment will cause accumulation of inorganic ''non-process elements'' (NPEs) and serious operational problems. In this work, an electrodialysis process is being developed for recycling the acidic bleach plant effluent of bleached kraft pulp mills. In this process, electrodialysis functions as a selective kidney to remove inorganic NPEs from bleach plant effluents, before they reach the recovery cycle. Acidic bleach plant effluents from several mills using bleaching sequences based on chlorine dioxide were characterized. The total dissolved solids were mostly inorganic NPEs. Sodium was the predominant cation and chloride was present at significant levels in all these effluents. In laboratory electrodialysis experiments, selective removal of chloride and potentially harmful cations, such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium, were removed efficiently. Rejection of organic compounds was up to 98%. Electrodialysis was shown to be resistant to membrane fouling and scaling, in a 100-hour laboratory experiment. Based on a model mill with 1,000 ton/day pulp production, the economic analysis suggests that the energy cost of electrodialysis is less than $200/day, and the capital cost of the stack is about $500,000.