Södra Cell, Sweden, has contracted Valmet, Finland, to upgrade the evaporation plant its Mönsterås pulp mill in Sweden. The upgrade will unload the capacity of the existing evaporation line No 1 and improve steam economy by increasing the capacity of the existing evaporation line No 2. The delivery is scheduled for autumn 2016.

The value of the order was not disclosed. However, a project of this type and scope is typically valued at around EUR 10 million, according to Valmet.

 

The new order follows a similar major evaporation plant upgrade of the Södra Cell, Värö mill, which was awarded to Valmet last year, together with upgrades of most process areas in the same mill.

"We are looking forward to this project and are satisfied with the technical concept Valmet has offered us. This will improve the function of the evaporation plant, increase the energy efficiency, and increase our profit," said Jonas Olander, project leader at Södra Cell Mönsterås.

"We see this evaporator upgrade bringing many benefits for the Mönsterås mill. Besides improving the steam economy of the plant, we are implementing dry solids content control of the firing liquor to the recovery boiler. We will also add additional washing possibility of existing heating surface areas to improve plant availability. We are happy to continue our good cooperation with Södra Cell," said Fredrik Vedin, Valmet’s product sales manager, EVAPS.

The evaporation plant in a mill concentrates black liquor coming from the digester. In the evaporation process, the evaporated water is brought back to the pulp production process to minimize the mill's water consumption. After evaporation, the concentrated black liquor is fired in the recovery boiler for steam generation and recovery of cooking chemicals.

 

The new Valmet equipment to be installed will be two Tube Evaporators, a Falling Film Reflux Condenser, and four liquor preheaters. A substantial upgrade of the piping system and an integration and upgrade of an existing condensate treatment system will also be performed.

Over the years, Valmet has assisted Mönsterås mill by making several smaller and larger upgrades of the existing evaporators. The cooperation started in 2001 when Valmet replaced damaged lamellas with TUBEL and also installed a new TUBEL Super Concentrator (see photo).

 

Södra is an economic association with a membership base of about 51,000 forest owners in southern Sweden. Södra has built up a considerable production of paper pulp, wood products, and biofuels. The company employs about 3,500 people and has three business areas—Södra Skog, Södra Cell, and Södra Wood (former Södra Timber and Södra Interiör). 

Södra Cell is one of the largest players in the world in the area of softwood pulp and operates three pulp mills in Sweden—Mörrum, Mönsterås, and Värö. Södra Cell Mönsterås is Södra's biggest pulp mill with a capacity of 750,000 metric tpy of pulp. In addition to electricity, the mill delivers district heating to the municipality of Mönsterås and to Södra's sawmill in the area. Also, the mill supplies tall oil for biodiesel.