The latest dramatic developments in the international situation, with the consequent increase in energy costs, are pushing all paper mills to develop and urgently implement new roadmaps to improve energy efficiency in production lines.
Therefore, not only an “ecologically driven” requirement to reach the target of ZERO emissions, but also a real economic need for energy saving has become a must.
Energy Saving Targets, which belong to the Overmade and Powermade dna, have been directly and immediately experienced in the latest installations, with reduced electrical energy consumption in the tissue forming area and reduced thermal energy consumption in the drying area.
The projects were developed to satisfy the highest flexibility requirements. From concept design to installation engineering, the compact and modular systems fit all existing layouts without jeopardizing maintenance space requirements.
On an existing Crescent Former forming section, Overmade installed its new DYNAFLO-C headbox with the main target of improving paper quality.
Immediately after the start-up, not only was improved paper quality achieved, thanks to enhanced micro-turbulence control, fiber distribution and formation, but the expected energy savings in the line were also realized.
Since the restart of the line, it has been possible to produce the same tissue grades while saving 16.2% energy in the fan pump alone.
Further optimization then involved the approach flow refining section: the refining system power consumption was reduced by a further 15%, while providing additional paper quality advantages such as increased fiber openness, higher bulk index and enhanced softness perception.
A second optimization step has been performed on the same machine with the installation of a new press section and modifications to the drying area. While the thermal energy savings on the hood and on steam and condensate reached values of 10.6%, with the new press the paper mill immediately achieved a significant production increase while maintaining reduced energy consumption in the approach flow system and reduced refining intensity.
With a strong passion for paper and tissue manufacturing, OVERMADE and POWERMADE continue to deliver on their ECO and LOGIC solutions, maintaining a strong focus on energy saving. In recent months, a recovery steam generator unit and a new hot air generation system have also entered full operation.
In this case as well, the performance of low-emission burners and the significant energy savings achieved by using POWERMADE RECOVERY steam generator (RSG1) have been confirmed: the hot air exhausted by the hood during the tissue drying process is conveyed to a recovery system capable of generating steam from the hot fumes.
The project has been further developed with a second-stage hybrid hot air generator system in which electric burners generate, with full flexibility, the required heat together with low-emission burners.
The recovery steam generator can produce, free of cost, 25% of the total Yankee steam consumption, while the reduced CO emissions generate additional benefits for the customer.
The energy saving package does not stop here: a new combined wet-end blower can safely be installed on any tissue machine, using the residual heat available from the heating and drying system of the line to increase drying capacity while reducing consumption.
The solution, first implemented by OVER on a production line almost 35 years ago, is now gaining renewed interest thanks to a much shorter investment payback period, with an updated approach to its core concepts aimed at achieving increasingly lower specific energy consumption on the production line.
