Introduction

In today's world, paper is essential material for human being. It is used for newsprint, book, writing
(copies), packaging, tissue, paperboard and construction. The concept of making paper from fibers
(lignocelluloses material) is an integrated system of fiber separation (pulping) and reforming the fibers
into a mat (paper making). Thus formation of paper involves mainly two steps i.e. pulping and paper
making. In the context of Nepal, paper was being used from old age. Traditional paper (Nepali kagaj) is
still being used for official purpose. Paper industries are one the popular chemical industry. Generally,
bamboo, straw, jute, lokta, waste paper etc. are used to make paper.
Sources of Raw Materials
The raw materials used for paper industry are
i. Softwood : Coniferous and non-coniferous wood
ii. Grasses and reeds (a tall plant with hollow stem) e.g. Lemon, siru, panni, bamboo, bagassee, hemp
etc
iii. Straws : rice, wheat, barley etc.
iv. Hard woods : Eucalyptus, pinus, mulberry, rubber plant wood etc.
v. Waste paper
Raw Materials for Paper
The raw materials for paper is pulp. The pulp can be classified into
i) Fibrous type Fibrous raw materials
ii) Non-fibrous type
Fibrous raw materials
 Paper Pulp : Ground wood, bleached and unbleached pulp, semi chemical pulp.
 Reuse Pulp : Paper products, newspaper, paper bound.
 Cellulose Pulp : Straw, linen and cotton.
 Speciality Pulp : Inorganic fibers such as asbestos and glass.
Non-fibrous raw materials
The chemicals, which are used for filtering, sizing and coating of paper are included in such raw
materials. These chemicals are used for pulping and bleaching.
 Inorganic raw materials: Clay, Tale, TiO₂, ZnS, CaCO,, alums, sulphur, lime, NaOH, soda ash, H₂O₂,
Cl₂, Mg(OH)2. Sodium chlorate etc. organic raw materials; Rosin, starch, wax, glycerol, dyes etc.
Stages in Production of Paper
The main stages in paper production are
i) Converting wood into pulp (Pulping)
ii) Bleaching and finishing operation of wood pulp
iii) Paper making process

The details of each stages are as follows;

Converting Wood into Pulp (Pulping)

  Pulp is defined as a commercial cellulose used for production of paper and derived from materials
like wood, bamboo, bagasses etc. Pulp is prepared by mechanical or chemical methods. The process of
preparation of pulp from raw materials is called pulping.
Mainly there are four types of pulping process:
i. Mechanical pulping
ii. Chemical pulping
iii. Solvent pulping
iv. Semi chemical pulping

The short description of each are as follows:

i. Mechanical pulping
The woods are collected and bark is removed. It involves mainly grinding and abrading action on
wood to produce pulp. For this purpose revolving grindstone are used in which bolts of wood are
pressed. In recent development, pressure is used to grinder and temperature is controlled. The
grindstones are silicon carbide or aluminium oxide grits in a vitrified clay binder. The characteristics of
pulp can be varied by changing stone surface pattern, stone speed, pressure of wood log against stone
and temperature of pulp slurry.

The ground wood or mechanical pulp is of low strength as compared to chemical pulps Therefore, such
pulps are only used for relatively impermanent papers such as newsprint, catalogs, magazines and
paperboard. Such pulp has excellent printing qualities because of high bulk, smoothness, resiliency and
good ink absorption.
ii. Chemical Pulping
The main objective of chemical pulping is to solubilize and removal to the lignin portion of
wood. Fibrous cellulose are separated from lignin by using chemical reagents.
There are two important chemical pulping process.
  They are
i) The Kraft (Sulphate) process
ii) The sulphite process
In Kraft process, a mixture of NaOH and Na2s are mixed as active chemical. The wood is
digested at first in a large pressure vessel called digester. The pressure about 10 atms,
temperature 170-175°C is maintained for 2-3 hrs. The pulp is then washed in a countercurrent
rotary vacuum washer system after being cooked in a digester. During the process, the
conditions are so maintained that lignin are hydrolyzed (removed) and cellulose are hydrolyzed
minimum.
The separated liquor is dark and is called dark liquor. It is concentrated to 60 to 65% solids in
evaporators. In this stage, liquor is burnt in recovery furnace to allow burning of lignin and
carbohydrate degradation product. The inorganic portions are collected on the bottom of
furnace as molten smelt of Na2CO3, and Na2S. Na2SO4 is added as makeup and is reduced to
Na2S by carbon. After reacting with water, green liquor is obtained which is reacted with slaked
lime
Na2CO3+ Ca(OH)₂ 2NaOH + CaCO 3
The CaCO3, is filtered off and removed. The pulp is collected for drying and used for bleaching In
Sulphite process lignin of wood is removed by reacting with bisulphite (HSO 3) on under acidic
conditions and forms ligno sulphonates which are soluble in water.

At first cooking liquor is prepared by burning sulphur to SO 2, and absorption of it in water reacting it
with peris proper base sodium, magnesium or ammonia. The liquor is sodium, magnesium or
ammonium bisulphite which are soluble at pH 4.5. Wood is cooked for 4-5 hours with bisulphite. Batch
digestors are used for this purpose. The temperature required is 140-150°C. White color pulp is
produced after drying. White grade papers, book papers and sanitary papers are formed from this kind
of pulp.

iii. Semi chemical pulping

  The chips of wood are carried out a mild chemical treatment with dilute sulphite, sulphate, caustic
soda etc. The wood is softened to separate fibers mechanically. Such process produce pulp of specific
and higher quality than mechanical pulping. The yield of pulp is less but quality of it is better.

iv. Solvent pulping

  In 1930, Kennert developed and patented first solvent (organosolvent) pulping process based
on 50% ethanol (aq). In this process, wood chips are contacted with aqueous solvent mixture and
cooked (digested) for several hours at elevated temperature. Initially formic and acetic acids are
released then hydrolysis of lignin and hemicelluloses occurs. Catalyst like HCl, CH 3COOH, HCOOH, AICI3,
MgSO4, CaCl2 etc. can be used for better delignification. Cellulose pulp is filtered and solvent is recovered
by distillation.

Bleaching and Finishing Operation of Pulp

The main purpose of bleaching of pulp is to remove remaining pulp and other colored degradation
products. The bleaching process mainly includes three stages,
  i) Chlorination
  ii) Alkaline extraction
iii) Oxidative process
In chlorination, elemental Cl2, and then for alkaline extraction, NaOH (sodium hydroxide) is used. For
oxidative process, sodium or calcium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide or hydrogen peroxide are used.
The pulp is washed in each stage to remove solubilized impurities. The combination of stages can be
specific for different type of pulp. The greater the number of steps, the higher will be quality of final
pulp but cost is increased. If pulp is to be carried for long distance, dewatering (removal) of water is
necessary which can be done by hydraulically pressing at 200-300 atm, vacuum flash drying, extrusion in
the form of noodles or pellets.
Paper Making Process
  Paper is defined as thick (matted) mass or pressed mass of fibers sheet usually cellulosic
material and generally formed on a fine wire screen from a water suspension. The paper making process
mainly involves the following steps;
  a. Preparation of fiber suspension
   b. Formation of paper
  A. Preparation of fibre suspension
Pulps are mixed with water to make slurry by using mechanical disintegrators which contains
rotating drum with knife attachments. Such operation is called beating and refining. Many types of filled
are added to slurry to increase brightness, fitness bulk, flexibility, opacity, softness and weight of paper.
Sizing and colouring agents are also added before processing. Such colouring agents are synthetic dyes
or water insoluble pigments. In this way, fiber suspension is prepared.
B. Formation of Paper
  The conversion of fiber suspension into paper involves three major steps,
  i) Forming a wet web.
ii) Pressing the web sheet
iii) Drying the sheet.
  i. Forming a wet web
A wet web (wet sheet) is prepared by running 99.5% water fiber slurry into a moving belt of wire
clothes at a speed of 50 m/minute for fine paper and 500 m/minute for news print paper. By using
gravity, water is drained. The screen has a side-wise shaking motion to give better interlocking of fibres
on a mat. The water is collected as white matter and reused for recovery of fiber.
  ii. Pressing the wet sheet (Wet web)
  The wet paper sheet containing 80% water is passed to felt roll to press section where water is
removed by mild pressure. The amount of water is reduced to 60-65%.
iii. Drying the sheet
  The sheet obtained form press section has sufficient strength to carry its weight. It is then passed
through smoothing rolls. Then it is passed through steam heated metal cylinders where heat and
moisture are removed. The paper board is directly dried. In last drying roll, about 5-6% H₂O is remained.
It is then passed through pressure rolls to produce smooth well finished paper. It is wound in rolls and
cut, coated and packaged.
Quality of Paper
 
Quality of paper depends on nature of raw materials, nature of pulp and paper formation process.
 
The finishing and converting process adopted finally also determine quality of paper.
  The quality of paper can be improved by surface treatment solution of starch. It can be applied during
drying process to improve surface bonding. Paper is coated to improve printing properties A surface
coating of pigment (usually kaolin, china clay, CaCO 3 or TiO2) and an adhesive (starch, casein etc) is
applied to partially dried web by brush, blade or spray. The paper surface is brought to high finish by
passage through super calenders. Super calenders are stacks of alternate steel and densified fiber roll
that create rubbing action on the sheet.
 
On the basis of requirements, characteristics, and uses of paper, they are classified as
  i) Wrapping paper: for bags, grease paper
 
ii) Tissue paper for cigarette, carbon, toilet paper, towel, napkin papers
ii) Book papers coated and uncoated paper, lithograph offset, textbook paper 
iv) Writing paper Bond weight and linen papers
v) Ground wood printing paper: Catalogs, news print paper, poster, wallpapers 
vi) Paperboard: Heavier, less flexible laminated paper