10.

DRYING OF PULPS
Table of content
DRYING OF PULPS..................................................................................................................................................... 1
WET END AND PRESSING .......................................................................................................................................... 2
PULP DRYING IN THE DRYING SECTIONS ................................................................................................................... 3
Airborne dryer .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Cylinder dryers................................................................................................................................................... 4
Flash drying ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
CUTTER LAYBOY AND BALING ................................................................................................................................. 6
Cutting of the pulp web....................................................................................................................................... 6
Pulp bale handling ............................................................................................................................................. 6
QUALITY ASPECTS OF DRYING.................................................................................................................................. 6
QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................................................................. 7

Kaj Henricson
Professor Pulping Technology
Lappeenranta University of Technology
August 2004

Educational course material and only for internal and personal use during
the course: An introduction to chemical pulping technology.

Drying of pulps
In-nonintegrated pulp mills pulp is dried and cut to sheets that are stacked and packed to bales;
usually the size of a bale is 200kg. The pulp bales are transported to paper or board mills where the
pulp bales are repulped and used for the production of paper and board.
Pulp can also be used on a board or paper machine by pumping the pulp from the pulp mill to the
board or paper mill. Board and paper production at a mill integrated with the pulp mill saves the
costs of drying and repulping the pulp. Pulp drying changes to some marginal extent the properties
of the fibers and these changes can be favorable for some board and paper grades and negative for
some other grades.
The goal of drying is to remove most of the water from the pulp without affecting pulp quality in a
negative way. Another goal is to remove the water as economically as possible, that is using as little
steam as possible by efficient pressing of the pulp sheet prior to steam drying. The dryness after the
press section affects the amount of steam needed in the drying section. The pulp dryer is usually the
largest single consumer of steam in the fiber line and every percentage of dryness after the press
section affects the steam balance of the pulp mill. Advanced presses such as shoe presses are in use
at pulp mills in order to raise dryness before the drying section.

Fapet 6B: p.B308

Picture 1. The web dryness after the press section is approximately 45%-48%. With improved press
section configurations such as shoe presses, dryness values over 52% are possible.

The oldest type of pulp drying machines uses the same idea as a typical fiber line drum thickener as
Picture 2 shows. The only difference in the operating principle is that in the pulp dryer, the pulp
exits the drum in a web form going to presses. Intermediate web heating was added to achieve
higher dryness before the drying section following the press section.

Picture 2. Drum type wet end

MPS

Wet end and pressing

A traveling metal wire replaced the drum in order to increase the capacity of the dryer. The
horizontal wire section allows more time for dewatering, higher machine speed, and lower basis
weight of the web. Evaporation from the web became easier in the final drying stage after the
introduction of the wire section. The capacity of the wire type pulp drying machine was increased
further and the free draw of the web between the wire section and the first roll presses became a
problem. A pick-up roll was added to increase web dryness after the wire section.

Picture 3. Wire section with pick-up roll

MPS

The double wire machine was developed in the early 1980s to further improve mechanical
dewatering and to increase the dryness of the web before thermal drying. Many types of double wire
machines have been available over the years. The largest double wire machine being built in 2003 is
for a production volume of 900,000 tons/year.

MPS, Metso

Picture 4. Double wire machine

The dewatering process in a double wire drying machine has low-consistency, medium-consistency
and high-consistency stages. Low-consistency dewatering takes place on the forming table, mediumconsistency in the pre-press and high-consistency in the wire presses. Further dewatering occurs in
two double-felted presses following the wire press section.

Picture 5. Water removal in a double wire machine

Fapet 6A: p.A669

Pulp drying in the drying sections

Steam-heated cylinders are the traditional method for the drying of web of pulp, paper and board.
For pulp web applications, special technical solutions have been developed. Since the 1950s, the
dominant principle for drying pulp web has been the airborne web dryer. Besides web drying, also
drying of pulp fibers dispersed in a gas flow has been used at mainly smaller pulp mills.
Drying of pulp is done for two main reasons. Firstly, the pulp cannot be stored unless it is dry. If the
pulp is in a wet form, it will be damaged by biological and chemical activity during storage.
Secondly, transportation costs for wet pulp are high due to the cost of transporting the water in the
wet pulp. Market pulp is transported globally and it is necessary to reduce the water content to a low
level. Market pulp is dried to an absolute moisture content of around 10%.
Airborne dryer
In the air-float dryer, the pulp web is carried in a number of horizontal passages through a large
chamber in which air distribution boxes blow heated air to support the web and to remove moisture.
The cylinder dryer exposes the web to high surface temperatures, while in the air-float dryer, lower
temperature gradients can be applied. Lower temperatures are claimed to be advantageous for the
rewetting properties of the pulp when taken into use at the board or paper mill.

Fapet 6A: p.A227

Picture 6. Airborne dryer

Cylinder dryers
Picture 7 shows a typical stacked cylinder pulp dryer. Since the web in pulp drying is thick, it is
strong enough to allow drying without support felts or wires. The stacking of cylinders is a compact
and space-saving design.

Picture 7. Cylinder drying section

Fapet 6A: p.A226

Flash drying
In flash drying, no web is formed. Instead, the pulp is thickened in a press device to about 35%-45%
solids content, and then it is shredded and fluffed to the smallest possible aggregate size for good
heat transfer. The fluffed pulp is blown into a stream of hot gas and passed into a series of drying
towers. Moist gas and pulp are separated in a cyclone, and the pulp is passed to the next drying stage
where the process is repeated. This continues until a sufficient level of dryness has been reached.
Most systems employ two stages. After drying, the pulp is cooled in a third stage with air. After
flash drying, baling is done in a slab press where the pulp is packed under hydraulic pressure into
rectangular slabs. The slabs are then assembled into bales of pulp.

MPS

Picture 8. Flow sheet of a flash drying system

Picture 9. The flash dryer at strand pulp mill

MPS

Cutter layboy and baling

Cutting of the pulp web
A cutter slits and cuts the dried web sheets for baling and wrapping. Depending on the mill
architecture, there can be different types of conveyors (swing conveyor, transport conveyor, scale
conveyor) between the cutter and bale press. In the last conveyor before the bale press, each bale is
weighed, and the final verification of the total mill production takes place here.
Pulp bale handling
A modern baling line consists of the following machines:

hydraulic bale press with a press force of at least 1,000t

wrapper application machine for pulp sheets or paper taken from the roll
binding machine
turntable and folding machine
marker
bale stacker
programmable logic control electronic system

With new machines, it is possible to reach a capacity of up to 300 bales per hour. Hydraulics have
for the most part been replaced by servomotors, frequency converters and pneumatics. During bale
handling, it is important to eliminate the risk of damaging the bale.

Picture 10. Typical dimensions of pulp bale

MPS, Metso

Quality aspects of drying

The goal of drying is to remove most of the water from the pulp without affecting pulp quality, but
some changes cannot be avoided. The most important changes in fiber properties in pulp drying, as
compared to pulp never dried in paper and board production, are related to:

loss of repulping properties

change in strength characteristics
loss of optical properties, mainly brightness

These changes can be related partly to the drying process and how it is performed. Change of
strength is associated to the final moisture content rather than to the drying method. One explanation
is that fibers loose their available bonding surface area and get more stable dimensions upon drying
to low moisture content.
Problems with repulping characteristics and brightness reversion may be related to local time and
temperature relationships in drying. A very high surface temperature in cylinder drying might cause
"case hardening" at the sheet surfaces which may lead to problems with rewetting and repulping.
This problem is less pronounced in air-float drying due to lower local temperature gradients.
6

Questions
1. The wet end section, the advantages of the double wire machine. / Kuivatuskoneen mrk
p, kaksoisviirakoneen edut.
2. The operating principle of an airborne dryer, the advantages of the airborne dryer. /
Leijukuivattimen toimintaperiaate ja kuivattimeen liittyvt edut.
3. The drying principles in use in drying pulp. / Kytss olevat kuivatusperiaatteet sellun
kuivatuksessa.
4. The effect of pulp drying on pulp properties. / Kuivatuksen vaikutus massan ominaisuuksiin.