To secure fiber supply and the viability of their board machine at Mondipatti, Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited has integrated its mill with a pulp production line supplied by Valmet in 2022. Valmet’s Continuous Cooking G3 and TwinRoll press technology have ensured strong bleached hardwood kraft pulp, along with consistent supply of excellent pulp quality and yield for TNPL mill. The technology further reduced the consumption of energy, water and chemicals, leading to an overall decrease in environmental impact.
The Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL) pulp and paper mill in Mondipatti, Trichy District, India has a modern paperboard machine making 2,00,000 TPA of multilayer paperboard. It began operating in 2016. Since the machine started up, it has been fully dependent on purchased pulp for papermaking fibers. With the pricing of purchased pulp often fluctuating and availability not always completely reliable, TNPL felt these risks were impacting the long-term outlook for the paper machine’s operation.
Driving Force behind Fiberline Investment
To secure both the fiber supply and the future viability of their board machine, TNPL started exploring the possibility of integrating the mill with pulp production. The idea was to take advantage of the highly organized clonal pulpwood plantations in more than 2,00,000 acres that the company had been developing over many years to help ensure its fiber supplies. With the backward integration, the company wanted to envisage the availability of fiber to the paperboard mill.
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Valmet Chosen as Preferred Supplier
TNPL decided to install a modern bleached hardwood pulp line, and they selected Valmet’s Continuous Cooking G3 technology after a thorough techno-commercial evaluation of bids from global pulp and paper technology suppliers.
Based on our thorough evaluation, Valmet won the order because it was clear that their solutions met all the key objectives, including environmental compliance, technological competence, high energy cost-effectiveness and the greenest technologies, said late Mr. Seenivasan R, Executive Director (FAC) of Mill Operations at TNPL.
Startup and Challenges
The project was started when the Covid pandemic had set in. TNPL had 2 goals- one to commission the project with the limited resources from Valmet & TNPL, and second that the plant had to be operated for the project, which it had been intended for.
According to Mr. S. Nandagopal, General Manager (Projects) at TNPL, “The project execution took place during two waves of Covid-19 in India. The pandemic meant travel restrictions were in effect during the start-up phase. The team needed to be creative to work around these difficulties.”
Using remote technology to access the mill’s DCS, Valmet’s Nordic team and their counterparts from both TNPL and Valmet’s team in India collaborated closely to achieve smooth start-up and commissioning.
Mr. Bhanu Prasad, Chief General Manager of the TNPL Board Plant, appreciated the overall cooperation extended by Valmet in achieving its objectives, both during and after the commissioning of the project. “Valmet gave us their full support during the project execution, even during the peaks of Covid-19, and all the deliveries were on time. Despite the travel restrictions on their overseas experts, Valmet empowered their local supervisors to support TNPL with remote support services so that the experts could also participate. Valmet’s overall project execution performance was excellent and very professional.”
Pulp Line’s Successful Commissioning
The plant was commissioned in January 2022 and within three months, which means in May 2022, TNPL was able to produce 410 tons. From the very next day of commissioning, TNPL got a good product from this pulp mill which was used for their Value- Added Products (VAP) of both paper & paperboard. The high-quality pulp was used to manufacture the mill’s premium paperboard grades. With full support from the highly-qualified and professional Valmet team, TNPL was able to stabilize the operations within two months. They footed an excellent technology, which helped the line to reach its expected maximum capacity within four months of the start-up. The high quality and quantity of pulp achieved in a very short time also met the board marketing rates.
Valmet Continuous Cooking G3
As per Mr. S. Nandagopal, General Manager (Projects) at TNPL, the solution offered great benefits to TNPL such as strong bleached hardwood kraft pulp, along with consistent supply of excellent pulp quality and yield. The technology further reduced the consumption of energy, water and chemicals, leading to an overall decrease in environmental impact.
Valmet’s state-of-the-art Continuous Cooking G3 has a separated impregnation vessel and a continuous digester, which gives very good yield, uniform pulp quality and less chemical and utility consumption. The main benefits of Valmet technology have been the compact layout and less carbon footprint leading to less greenhouse emissions.
The Kappa number variation is very low, which gives a consistent pulp quality ensuring that the brightness levels remain within the norms. Effluent generation is very less. Even though there is a shortage of manpower because Continuous Cooking G3 technology is new for TNPL, the wonderful support extended by the Valmet team has encouraged the people to get training at the earliest, said Mr. K. Thiruselvam, Deputy General Manager- Pulp & Recovery, TNPL.
Valmet Continuous Cooking G3 has a two vessel operation, which is an operations-friendly and energy efficient system. The TRP presses are also operation-friendly and maintenance free. There is the DNCG system, which benefits the company by reducing the odour.
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TNPL Praises Valmet
Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited has expressed its immense satisfaction with the overall performance of Valmet’s Continuous Cooking G3 and TwinRoll press technology in achieving high quality pulp for use in its premium aura brand packaging board grades.
Mr. R. Kandhavel, Assistant General Manager for Instrumentation, TNPL, said, “We had a great experience working with Valmet for our 500 TPD project. We took up this project as a challenge. Since it was a major project, many separate layers and systems needed to be coordinated. The global and remote teams had regular interactions. We checked each and every logic block put in the project. For the first time, we implemented all our logic and algorithm in the controller (L2) level itself.
“This is the first project having advanced process control systems implemented in the DCS itself without any separate system to avoid any delay and for the fine tuning of operations. This is one of the unique features of the project. Optimization started on day one of the project commissioning. It was a very good experience to work together remotely on this project, and it’s remarkable how successful it has been,” he added.
According to Mr. Arulmozhidevan S., Assistant General Manager, Mechanical, TNPL, “All the gearboxes, drivers, digesters and pumps, particularly the screen housing, has been good. All the equipment is maintenance-free. Valmet itself means value to meet the customer.”
Mr. Mohan K., Assistant General Manager, TNPL, said, “As a team, TNPL and Valmet were able to commission the plant without any major electrical issues. I thank Valmet for all the support it extended to us during this crucial stage.”
