BTG Kappa Business Healthy Despite Global Downturn
Despite pressure to cut expenditure in the face of depressed market conditions, far-sighted mills are investing in state-of-the-art analyzer technologies that will help them trim ongoing costs and leverage a new competitive edge.
In a tough climate that’s prompting many P&P businesses to conserve capital and cash, BTG’s KNA-5200 Kappa Analyzer continues to generate surprisingly strong interest from mills worldwide.
Figure 1:
Pulptec™ Kappa Analyzer
BTG specialists believe difficult market conditions are motivating the world’s more enterprising mills to seek new ways to reduce costs, minimize product variability, and help make scarce human and fiber resources go further.
Since mid 2008, BTG has seen steady growth in requests for both new kappa analyzers and rebuilds of older BTG/ABB analyzers. A new KNA-5200 was recently installed for a customer in the Americas (startup January 2009), while another for a customer in Asia, which includes a BriteTrac BTM-5200 brightness module, is set for startup in August 2009. Both units will sample all important process areas in the pulp mill, from digesters, to oxygen delignification, to the bleach plant.
In addition, three rebuilds have been recently completed in Europe and the Americas, comprising:
- Software upgrades for improved control and manipulation of the sampling, washing and measurement modes, and increased raw data storage capabilities.
- Mechanical upgrades for smoother operation of valves and piping, including the addition of clear water and measurement tanks to increase the frequency of kappa results, to allow for the handling of multiple samples simultaneously, and to reduce maintenance requirements.
- Optical upgrades to the latest new version, which features an improved seal to extend the life of the optics, and new detectors for enhanced calibration accuracy.
Before every rebuild, BTG experts work with each customer to assess the potential benefits to their operation through a comprehensive survey and analysis of the pulping and bleaching process.
As an example, by frequently sampling from the digester blow tank, BTG engineers predicted that a mill could significantly improve wood yield (i.e. decrease the amount of wood needed per tonne of pulp). The chart below shows kappa distribution from the digester blow tank before and after the rebuild:
Figure 2:
Kappa distribution - Before & After rebuild of Kappa Analyzer
By taking more frequent samples, the mill gained better control of the digester kappa, increasing the average kappa from the digester, increasing wood yield – and ultimately decreasing overall wood costs. This resulted in a payback in less than one year.