Steam preparation units for the paper industry

Articles Energy Steam preparation units for the paper industry

Steam preparation units. From the point of view of technology, a paper machine (PM) is a rather complex technological object with a large number of possible variables, each of which is capable of conceptually changing the course of production. Therefore, for paper machines, it is important to pay attention to almost each of the nodes with the individual adjustment of its parameters and understanding of their influence in combination on the final result.

In most cases, the drying process for PM uses water vapor as the main heat carrier. It is clear that the quality of the paper or cardboard drying mode, ease of operation and safety during the operation of the steam condensate system as a whole depend on the quality of steam preparation. Therefore, if approached in a comprehensive manner, then a lot of important tasks are assigned to the steam pretreatment unit before using it in the PM process cycle, in particular:

stabilization of the working pressure with a variable technological regime; ensuring the safety of the operation of the PM and the entire steam condensate system;
increasing the dryness of saturated steam; accounting for steam consumption; high manufacturability of the installation, which should provide convenient and maximum automatic control with variable operating modes;
minimization of heat losses, noise and so on.

The most modern plants manufactured by ARTESIA, capable of being integrated into the existing PM control or developing its own control algorithm with its own control and the possibility of remote monitoring and control using the most modern dispatching system mySCADA.

To understand the importance of the correct organization of the steam input for the PM, let's give a small example of positive changes in the operation of the PM at one of our facilities. After the introduction of an integrated approach to the modernization of the steam inlet, an increase in the productivity of the PM on the 15% was achieved, at the same time, an increase in the temperature at the surface of the drying cylinder, a decrease in the load on the electric motors and a resonance on the drive part of the PM was achieved. This additionally significantly reduced power consumption and improved the operating conditions of the drying cylinders, their gearboxes and drives. The actual payback period was unexpectedly better than the one expected, and amounted to about 4 months against 10 declared.

Here are the main characteristics of another PM steam input unit that we have recently implemented: