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PULP MAKING PROCESS

Northern Pulp produces NBSK (Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft) pulp. The

long bre of NBSK adds strength to products like paper towels and tissue paper.

Because it is bleached it is used as a whitening agent. NBSK is highly valuable

and becoming more so since there are fewer thermal chemical mills producing

it.

Woodyard

Lumber from numerous woodlots and sawmills across

Nova Scotia are transported to Northern Pulp and

deposited in the woodyard.

Debarking

The lumber passes through a barking drum – a revolving

drum that loosens and removes bark by repeated

impacts. Stripped bark is used for fuel, or to enrich soil.

Chipper

Lumber is ground into chips and deposited into a storage

silo, rst passing through screens to prevent oversized

chips and undersized particles from passing.

Digestor

Chips are fed into the digestor for ‘cooking’, where

aqueous sodium hydroxide and sodium sul de, under

heat and pressure, break down the lignin holding the

wood bres together.

Chemical Recovery

The spent cooking liquor (black liquor) is routed to the chemical

recovery area. The chemical recovery process involves concentrating

weak black liquor, combusting organic compounds, reducing

inorganic compounds, and reconstituting the cooking liquor so it can

be re-used in the pulping process.

Blow Tank

After the wood chips have been ‘cooked,’ the contents of

the digestor are discharged under pressure into a blow

tank, where the chips disintegrate into bres or ‘pulp.’

Recovery Furnace

The energy generated by burning the black liquor is recovered as

steam for process requirements, such as cooking wood chips,

heating and evaporating black liquor, preheating combustion air, and

drying the pulp or paper products.

Washers

Pulp and spent cooking liquor (black liquor) are separated

in a series of washers. The resultant unbleached pulp is

placed in storage.
Bleach Plant

The bleaching process removes color from the pulp (due

to residual lignin) by adding chemicals to the pulp in

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varying combinations, depending on the end use of the

product. The chemicals are added to the pulp in stages in

the bleaching towers. Spent bleaching chemicals are

removed between each stage in the washers. Washer

e uent is collected in the seal tanks and either re-used

in other stages as wash water or sent to wastewater

treatment. Up to 85% of the total e uent volume in a

pulp mill is generated in the bleaching stage.

Wastewater Treatment

In an aerated pond, wastewater is treated through a combination of

physical, biological and chemical processes. These ponds use

aeration devices to add oxygen to the wastewater (normally surface

turbine aerators or bottom aerators) and mix the contents of the

pond, thereby enhancing the microbial activity. Boat Harbour is a

classic example of this type of treatment. Due to low e ciency levels

and the large surface required, the use of aerated lagoons has

drastically diminished.

Pulp Machine

The pulp is processed into the stock used for

papermaking. The pulp is taken from a storage chest,

screened and re ned (if necessary), and placed into a

head box of the paper machine. From there, a slurry of

pulp is created using water. The pulp slurry is put

through a paper machine and then passed through a

press section, where the water is drained and the sheet

forming process begins. The paper sheet is then put

through a dryer and a series of booths for coating and

drying.

Warehouse and Shipping

The nished product goes through a calender (where the

sheet is pressed to reduce thickness and smooth the

surface) and is wound onto storage reels and prepared

for transporting via truck and rail.

E uent

E uent is de ned by the United States

Environmental Protection Agency as

“wastewater – treated or untreated – that ows

out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial

outfall.” Generally, it refers to wastes discharged

into surface waters. In the context of

wastewater treatment plants, e uent that has

been treated is sometimes called secondary

e uent, or treated e uent. E uent was not regulated until the early 1990s.

Paper manufacturing releases chlorinated lignosulfonic acids, chlorinated resin acids, chlorinated phenols

(trichlorophenol, trichloroguicol, tetrachloroguicol, dichlorophenol, dichloroguicol, and pentachlorophenol), and

chlorinated hydrocarbon into the e uent wastewater. These are the major contaminants formed in the e uent of

pulp and paper mills. Some compounds in the e uents are resistant to biodegradation and can accumulate in the

aquatic food chain.

In laboratory tests, mill e uent causes reproductive impairment in zooplankton, invertebrates (both being food for

sh), and shell sh (Environment Canada, Environmental E ects Monitoring Report, Cycle One). Other studies show

genetic damage and immune system reactions in sh (Easton et al. 1997, Genetic Toxicity of Pulp Mill E uent on

Juvenile Chinook Salmon (Onchorhynchus shawytscha) Using Flow Cytometry, Elsevier Science Ltd., Vol. 35, #2-

3).

Sources:

— https://millwatch.ca/

— https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-you-make-paper-from-a-tree

— https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/ les/2015-12/documents/pulpandpaper.pdf
 — https://www.nap.edu/read/9458/chapter/9#134

— https://www.intechopen.com/books/biological-wastewater-treatment-and-resource-recovery/pulp-mill-wastewater-

characteristics-and-treatment
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— http://blog.pulpandpaper-technology.com/chemical-recovery-in-pulp-and-paper-industry/

CINEMATOGRAPHER KEVIN FRASER EDITOR PETER GIFFEN LOCATION SOUND JAMES O'TOOLE

COMPOSERS JUSTIN SMALL & OHAD BENCHETRIT SOUND DESIGNER JUSTIN GAUDREAULT

PRODUCERS ANN BERNIER  DAVID CRAIG WRITER/DIRECTOR DAVID CRAIG

A VERTICAL PRODUCTIONS & SITE MEDIA CO-PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH CBC, CANADA MEDIA FUND, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF NOVA SCOTIA, NOVA SCOTIA FILM & TELEVISION PRODUCTION INCENTIVE FUND, ONTARIO

CREATES FILM & TELEVISION TAX CREDIT, AND THE CANADIAN FILM OR VIDEO FILM TAX CREDIT.

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