Recovery boiler
The black liquor recovery boiler is the single most expensive asset in the chemical pulp mill. Operating these boilers with optimal internal energy consumption and keeping the boilers operational for whole seasons without outages requires advanced technical solutions.
General info
Recovery boilers recovers chemicals and energy
The Recovery boiler recovers chemicals and energy, which is used in the cooking stage where wood chips are refined to cellulose. The black liquor is a mixture of by-products from this separation process. All chemical pulp-mills rely on this chemical recovery cycle for their economical and sustainable operations.
About cleaning
Sootblowers are used for keeping the recovery boiler clean inside
Pulp mills stay competitive by lowering production costs per ton cellulose and one way of doing that is to increase cellulose production. Since the recovery boiler is so expensive, it is commonly operated at or above original design capacity which presents challenges with regard to availability and runnability. The most common reason for reduced availability is fouling of the boiler heating surfaces. To combat this, retractable steam sootblowers are used to keep the boiler insides clean.
Our motto
We go beyond technical specification
Like the recovery boiler operation, retractable steam sootblowers are operated at maximum capacity, meaning there is no additional cleaning capacity to increase boiler availability. It is in this setting that Heat Management introduces the patented High Impact Sootblowing System (HISS®), increasing the cleaning capacity of the existing steam sootblowers by 100 %. Benefits include increasing recovery boiler availability, cleanability and efficiency, while reducing steam consumption. HISS® provides the mill with the necessary tool, allowing safe increase of production levels beyond technical specification i.e. process more black liquor in the boiler, without jeopardizing the process availability.
References on Recovery boilers
Södra Cell, Värö
In 2020 Södra Cell Värö initiated the Expansion 2.0 project, to increase production from 710 000 ADMT/year of NBSK pulp to 780 000 ADMT/year. The identified bottleneck was the recovery boiler. Read more about the results by downloading our case study.
Ahlström-Munksjö Aspa Bruk, Aspabruk Sweden
A case study and report from our HISS installation at Ahlström-Munksjö Aspa Bruk. The goal with the HISS project at Ahlström-Munksjö Aspa Bruk was to run the boiler at maximum load and increase the cleaning effect in the boiler with maintained steam consumption.
Recovery Boiler in Sweden
A case study and report from a HISS installation on a recovery boiler in Sweden. Name of the plant will be official soon. Download the report now for complete results.
BillerudKorsnäs Gruvön, Sweden
A case study and report from our HISS installation on the Recovery boiler at BillerudKorsnäs Gruvön. All 80 steam sootblowers were rebuilt in 2016 with Heat Managements patented solution using local actuator controlling the steam poppet valves on the sootblowers, together with upgraded software for monitoring/controlling the sootblowers.
