Finland-headed energy and forest industry technology provider Valmet Oyj has announced that it will supply an ash crystallizer plant with a capacity of 300 tonnes of ash per day to LD Celulose S.A. in Brazil. The ash crystallizer delivery is part of Lenzing’s and Duratex’s joint venture LD Celulose’s project to build a new 500 000 tonnes per annum dissolving pulp mill in Minas Gerais state, Brazil.
In December 2019, Austria-headed Lenzing Group and Brazil-headed Duratex S.A. announced the LD Celulose plans to build a 500 000 tonne-per-annum greenfield dissolving pulp mill near the cities of Indianópolis and Araguari in Minas Gerais state in Brazil. The new mill is scheduled to start up in 2022.
Valmet will supply an ash crystallizer plant with a capacity of 300 tonnes of ash per day to LD Celulose. The ash crystallizer delivery is part of Lenzing Group’s and Duratex’s joint venture LD Celulose’s dissolving pulp mill project and the order is additional to Valmet’s extensive technology and automation delivery announced in January 2020.
Our new pulp mill will have a positive socio-economic impact throughout the region. When choosing partners for this project we have emphasized reliability, energy efficiency, and best environmental practices. We chose Valmet to deliver their ash crystallization solution because the Valmet-concept will fulfill our request in the best way, said Roland Feiner, Chemical Recovery Implementation Manager, LD Celulose.
Recover mill chemicals
The Valmet Ash Crystallizer will recover mill chemicals and remove non-process elements, primarily chloride and potassium, from the mill’s liquor cycle. Unchecked chloride and potassium can cause corrosion in the digester, the evaporators, and the recovery boiler. The recovery boiler is especially sensitive to elevated levels of chloride and potassium.
Valmet was chosen as the key technology provider for LD Celulose’s new dissolving pulp mill project earlier this year and we are very happy to widen the cooperation now with the delivery of ash crystallizer. Our ash crystallization technology is well suited for large pulp mills and represents proven technology that provides the mill with better environmental performance and increased production efficiency, said Fernando Scucuglia, Director, Pulp and Energy, South America, Valmet.
In Ash Crystallization, the ash is completely dissolved in water and the solution is evaporated. The resulting crystals of sodium sulfate or carbonate are removed and returned to the liquor cycle. According to Valmet, this technology provides the best chloride/potassium removal combined with a high sodium recovery.
This will be the third ash crystallization system delivery from Valmet. Our largest installation with a capacity of 920 tonnes of ash per day is in Indonesia and another 480 tonnes per day ash crystallizer in China. This third installation will be a standalone plant, which means that it will have a high degree of independence from other mill processes, revealed Fredrik Kall, Director for Evaporation, Ash and Biotechnologies, Pulp and Energy business line, Valmet.
With this new addition of ash treatment system, Valmet’s total delivery includes now a fibre line, a pulp drying and baling line, an evaporation plant, a white liquor plant, an ash crystallization plant, and a mill-wide automation system. Although the value of the order has not been disclosed, Valmet says that the value of the delivery of this size and scope is typically around EUR 10-15 million.
