Special Tour of White Birch Paper at TAPPI PEERS Conference

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A special mill tour of White Birch Paper’s Bear Island newsprint mill, sponsored by Nalco, will follow the TAPPI PEERS Conference and the Research Forum on Recycling October 17 -20 in Norfolk, Va., USA. Participation in this tour ($20 additional registration fee option in conference registration form) is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. The tour bus will depart the Marriott hotel on Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m., for the two-hour (100-mile) run to the mill at Ashland, Va. It will depart the mill at 2:00 p.m. and arrive back at the Marriott around 4:30 p.m. The bus has WiFi, A/C, bathrooms, and a video screen.

The Bear Island mill (photo below) produces 650 metric tpd of newsprint from TMP and recycled fiber furnishes (recycle plant has 325 metric tpd capacity). The tour will include the recovered fiber receiving warehouse (including grading or sorting area), pulping (with a view of detrasher content), flotation cells (inspection door), ccntrol room (data historian, "quality" or process intervention procedures for brightness, dirt, stickies, etc.), and dry lab of machine (with paper samples or tear-offs available for inspection). A wrap-up Q&A session and lunch will take place immediately after the tour. In addition, other areas within the mill that have both group interest and mill accessibility will be available.