Imerys, Nedmag to Co-Develop Magnesium Hydroxide Bleaching Technology

Nedmag Industries, the Netherlands, and Imerys, Belgium, a global provider of mineral-based specialty solutions for industry and especially to pulp and paper markets, this week announced a strategic alliance to develop and market magnesium hydroxide-based bleaching technology and products for a large variety of pulp bleaching applications. According to Imerys and Nedmag, in addition to being environmentally-friendly, the technology will deliver cost savings by ensuring optimized use of magnesium sulphate, caustic soda, silicate, and/or hydrogen peroxide in the recipes. 

 

As the two companies explain, multiple performance benefits can be achieved by using magnesium hydroxide in pulp bleaching. This includes higher brightness values, less COD/BOD burden (typically a reduction of 40% can be achieved), better pulp dewatering, and consequently higher yield and cleaner water circuits. Furthermore, magnesium hydroxide has a potential to very significantly improve productivity of paper machines and pulp production lines by reducing downtime for process equipment cleaning, they add.

 

By this mid-July, a production line investment by Nedmag in its special grade of magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2pulp, will be complete. Industrial trial quantities of the product as well as development support have been available from Nedmag for some time already. The product is delivered as a stabilized suspension. 

To ensure sufficient customer support resources, from now on the validation of the technology for new customers will be carried out by Nedmag's alliance partners. Imerys will ensure exclusive market and sales development of Mg(OH)2pulp in most European countries while Nordic countries will continue to be carried out exclusively by Nedmag's pulp distribution partner Banmark, Finland.