RBI Hosts Gulf Coast/Southeast TAPPI Joint Conference on Recovery Cycle
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More than 50 representatives from 30 organizations and 10 states attended the Conference on the Kraft Chemical Recovery Cycle, "Brown to Green," hosted by Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), Atlanta, Ga., USA. The conference served as a follow-up to KilnCon, a joint meeting held in August 2017 at the Georgia Tech Savannah, Ga., campus.
The conference featured full day and one-half technical on April 12-13, 2018. The Gulf Coast and Southeast TAPPI regional officers joined forces on the program, including a tabletop show and dinner where both customers and suppliers were given an opportunity to network and discuss capability development on the intricacies of efficient and controllable black liquor operations.
In photo above, (l-r) Peter Hart of WestRock, Glen Hanson of IKD & Kiln Flame Systems (KFS), and Dr. Chris Luettgen of Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute discuss new innovations in recovery systems at the Gulf Coast and Southeast TAPPI conference held recently on Tech’s Atlanta campus.
Dr. Chris Luettgen, an associate director at RBI, welcomed the attendees and delivered an overview of the kraft recovery cycle. This was followed by more detailed presentations on the unit operations from brown stock washing efficiency through smelt dissolving tank, and instrumentation used throughout.
"TAPPI and Georgia Tech are focused on capability development of our industry’s engineers," said Luettgen, who is also Professor of the Practice in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tech. "It is vital that we bring current knowledge to our manufacturing facilities. This was a tremendous opportunity to bring excellent speakers to bear on that effort."
Fifteen experts in both academia and industry delivered technical presentations on topics ranging from corrosion and crystallization to evaporator monitoring and technology.
Meetings such as this are critical not only for sharing best practices and discussing new opportunities, but also in ways to address challenges that are shared among peers, Luettgen said.
In photo below, Temple Fontaine, formerly of WestRock (ret.), talks with fellow attendees at his table in the expo section of the recent Gulf Coast and Southeast TAPPI Recovery Cycle conference held at Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute.
