PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT DESIGN

Transcription

1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) HIGH-KAPPA OXYGEN DELIGNIFICATION PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT DESIGN NEXT-GENERATION PULPING AGENDA 2020 TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE DAVID TURPIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1101K STREET NW, SUITE 700 WASHINGTON, DC (202) JULY 21, K Street, NW, Suite 700 (AF&PA) Washington, DC

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL Summary and Background Project Purpose and Description Project Scope / Criteria Request for Proposal and Project Timeline Budget Qualifications Proposal Evaluation Criteria... 8 GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSAL PREPARATION Concept Summary Innovation and Impact Proposed Work Project Timeline Team Organization, Capabilities and Qualifications Project Budget

3 RFP HIGH KAPPA O 2 DELIGNIFICATION PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT DESIGN REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL 1. Summary and Background The Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance encourages the development of advanced manufacturing technologies that promise transformational impact on the paper and forest-based industries. The Alliance exists to identify industry technology needs and R&D priorities; to inform universities and government agencies about industry research needs and opportunities; and to promote collaborative R&D programs. Priority areas are next-generation chemical pulping, energy-efficient black liquor concentration, reuse of process waters, energy-efficient papermaking delivering a drier web to the paper dryers and cellulosic nanomaterials. The Agenda 2020 Next Generation Pulping Team is focused on maintaining or improving pulp attributes and performance properties while achieving one or more of the following goals: Reduce total energy needs by 25% Increase the yield of fiber 5% based on wood (i.e., raise from 50% yield to 55% yield) Reduce effluent BOD (COD) by 25% All of these goals provide multiple advantages to pulp mills including lower operating costs, a smaller environmental or life-cycle footprint, and lower environmental compliance costs. The Next-Generation Pulping task team is interested in increased yield for bleached grades, and this specific task is to achieve this yield increase by raising the target kappa number of the pulp after cooking, and provide a higher and more selective kappa reduction in the subsequent oxygen delignification stage. For bleachable grades, it means developing methods to bleach to existing target brightness (83-90 ISO) with No significant increase in bleaching costs No significant increase in final effluent loadings of regulated materials (BOD/TOC, and the specifically measured chlorinated organics), and Preserving the yield advantage throughout the bleach plant. 2. Project Purpose and Description Current Practices Chemical pulping consists of a group of reactions that break lignin into molecularweight fragments small enough to dissolve and diffuse out of the wood matrix, leaving the carbohydrates in a fibrous form. Typically, for bleachable grade fiber, chemical 1101 K Street, NW, Suite 700 (AF&PA) Washington, DC

4 pulping has to be conducted to approximately 30-Kappa number for softwoods (4.5% residual lignin content) and a 20-Kappa number for hardwood species (3% residual lignin content) in order to provide a bleachable grade of pulp. 1 Delignification of pulp in an alkaline oxygen environment has been practiced industrially since the 1970 s. Due to the difficulty of supplying oxygen gas to the pulp, the first reactors were of a downflow gas-phase type into which the pulp was introduced at ~25% consistency. They operated at ~ C temperature at ~ 600 kpa. With the development of medium-consistency pumping and mixing equipment, pulp at ~10-12% consistency could be processed. The Kappa reduction reached in the first medium consistency systems was lower than in the gas-phase reactors, mainly due to limitations in oxygen solubility. However, the selectivity of medium-consistency systems, measured in terms of loss in degree of polymerization of the cellulose (measured by standard pulp viscosity tests) per unit Kappa reduction, was better. With the addition of a second reactor, and supplying oxygen in two locations, the degree of Kappa reduction in medium-consistency systems could reach the same level as in the gas-phase reactors, or 50-55% on softwood, while maintaining the selectivity advantage over the gas phase reactor. One of the big advantages of the alkaline oxygen delignification stage is that, in a kraftor soda-based pulp mill, the dissolved substance from the oxygen stage can be recovered together with the dissolved substance from the digester in a closed loop system. Wash Water Digester Washing O 2 Delig Washing To Bleach Plant To Chemical Recovery Best Available Technology Pulping to a high Kappa number and enhancing oxygen delignification to reduce the Kappa number to traditional bleachable grade levels methods has potential to meet the yield and strength criteria required for breakthrough technology. Laboratory-scale trials 1 Kocurek, M.J.,Series Ed., Grace, T.M., Malcolm, E.W., Tech. Eds., Pulp and Paper Manufacture Series, Vol. 5, Alkaline Pulping, 3rd edn., The Joint Textbook Committee of the Paper Industry, TAPPI/CPPA, Atlanta, GA,

5 suggest that fully bleached pulp-yield improvements of 4 6 points may be realized through two-stage oxygen technology in conjunction with high-kappa pulping. 2,3,4,5 An obstacle associated with this technique is that the amount of dissolved lignin, as well as sodium, will build up in the liquid phase in the oxygen stage, due to the closedloop washing system. The higher lignin concentration will have a negative impact on the ability to dissolve lignin from the fiber, requiring harsher conditions to get the desired Kappa reduction. Harsher conditions are either higher temperature or higher alkali charge, which both will increase the cellulose degradation and have a negative impact on the yield. A gas-phase oxygen reactor can be used to supply the oxygen needed to accomplish the high-kappa reduction. However, the small amount of liquid more quickly reaches the critical lignin concentration which either inhibits the lignin dissolution or requires the harsher conditions mentioned above. 6,7 Different types of pretreatments for increased selectivity have been proposed. The early Sapoxal process included an acid washing stage ahead of the oxygen stage. 8 Nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) pretreatment has also been proposed. 9 Both these techniques require low ph conditions, making closure of the filtrate loop impractical, due to build-up of inorganic material required to adjust the ph both ways. With an open filtrate loop, the condition of keeping the environmental loadings to the wastewater system unchanged is not fulfilled. Polyoxometallate (POM) bleaching is a technique in which a charged POM is used to dissolve lignin at near-neutral conditions. The dissolved lignin and POM are recirculated to a higher temperature, oxygen-supplied reactor, in which the lignin is 2 Parthasarathy, V., Use of Digester Additives and Oxygen Delignification to Gain Bleached Pulp Yield and Achieve Environmental Objectives, 1998 TAPPI Proceed: Breaking the Pulp Yield Barrier Symposium Proc., TAPPI PRESS, Atlanta, GA, Magnotta, V.; Kirkman, A. Jameel, H.; Gratzl, J. High-Kappa-[No.] Pulping and Extended Oxygen Delignification to Increase Yield, 1998 Tappi Proceed: Breaking the Pulp Yield Barrier Symposium Breaking Symposium, TAPPI PRESS, Atlanta, GA, (1998). 4 Bokstrom, M.; Norden, S. Extended Oxygen Delignification, 1998 International Pulp Bleaching Conference Proceed, Helsinki, 1, (1998). 5 Lucian Lucia, Hasan Jameel, High Selectivity Oxygen Delignification, Final Technical Report, AF&PA Agenda 2020 Environmental Performance Task Group, United States Department of Energy, Elmer H. Fleischman//INEEL/US. Award Number: DE-FC07-00ID13870 (2007). 6 Magnotta, V; Courchene, C; Process Effects of Entrained Black Liquor and Oxygen Stage Filtrate Solids on Oxygen Delignification, TAPPI Proceedings 1982 Pulping Conference, pp Stromberg, B. Washing for Viscosity Protection in Oxygen Delignification, Low Chlorine Bleaching Seminar Presented by Ahlstrom and Kamyr, Inc., April Coetzee, B. Continuous Sapoxal bleaching operating, technical experience, Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada, 75, No. 6 T223-22, June Samuelson, O; Ojteg, U. NO 2 treatment of kraft pulp followed by oxygen bleaching, February 1990 TAPPI Journal, pp

6 converted to CO 2 and the POM is regenerated and recycled into the pulp stream. The POM stage thus forms its own independent bleaching and recovery loop, and the environmental condition is fulfilled. The process was deemed uneconomical due to the large amounts of POM required for the Kappa reduction. It was thus never tested for environmental impact or consumer products 10. Purpose of This Project The purpose, or goal, of this project area is to break the yield barrier by developing methods to produce higher yield and equal or lower residual-lignin pulps. The primary interest, but not sole interest, of the Agenda 2020 member companies is development of improved oxygen delignification methods that will enable this stage to reduce the initially higher lignin content to traditional lignin levels required for bleaching, and to accomplish this without losing the yield advantage and/or degrading the pulp qualities. Shifting the delignification load into the bleach plant tends to increase effluent load sufficiently that it is almost impossible to comply with discharge requirements. The goal of this project is to increase the yield of any traditional pulp product by five percentage points (for example, to ~45-50% for bleached grades). Proposed objectives (not to be regarded as exclusive): Bleached grades processing Determine the rate-limiting components of oxygen delignification and identify process alternatives to accelerate or extend delignification. Determine the selectivity limiting chemical processes (components) and identify methods to suppress the carbohydrate degradation. Develop methods to eliminate or render the dissolved lignin inert in the closed filtrate loop. Identify new treatment methods/processes/chemicals that will enable oxygen delignification to remove additional lignin without loss of yield or pulp viscosity. Evaluate advanced reactors designs that overcome specific barriers of current process technology for example, a thin-film reactor that improves oxygen availability to the pulp. 3. Project Scope / Criteria The Agenda 2020 supporting companies for Next-Generation Pulping are interested in increasing the yield and believe the methods suggested can work cost-effectively with advances in the processing methods. They will entertain any alternatives that can achieve the desired results, but are not predisposed to continue testing known additives including polysulfide, sodium borohydride and/or anthraquinone. The 8 Atalla, et. al., ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 785, Chapter 19, pp , July 23,

7 capabilities and cost-benefits of these methods are well understood by the companies and, given the historic R&D efforts on each of them, these methods are not regarded as promising approaches. The following criteria must be satisfied to meet the desired purpose and objectives: Must work with the majority of the existing pulp mill process equipment. The proposed alternative can lead to equipment/process design changes of a single stage (i.e., oxygen delignification). Any additive processes proposed must work with existing process chemistry and metallurgy. A digester pretreatment or post-treatment stage requiring different alloys will be considered, as long as the treatment will not accelerate corrosion of earlier or later process stages. 4. Request for Proposal and Project Timeline Time line for receipt of proposals and selection of projects is provided below. Project work is expected to commence by January Projects should be one to two years in duration and should not exceed $150,000 total ($75,000 per year). The proposal is not to exceed 15 pages, single-spaced, 11-point font or larger. Endnotes, budget and senior staff qualifications and institutional capabilities are not included in the proposal page count. The proposal is to include the following information and sections: Title PI including title, organization, address, and phone List of senior researchers (Co-PI) assisting on the project; include title and affiliation Objective Proposed cost for Agenda 2020; identify any institutional contribution as a separate line Summary Expected project duration Introduction with sufficient detail to assess the reasonableness of the proposed research Experimental approach this is not required in detail, but should provide a list of methods, equipment and analysis; references to literature are helpful A list of deliverables A timeline: list of project milestones Budget and senior staff qualifications vide infra List of institutional equipment/capabilities relevant to the proposed project Note: A proposal template is included at the end of this RFP. 7

8 Timeline: All proposals in response to this RFP are due no later than 5 pm EST, Friday September 2, Submitting proposals before the deadline is strongly encouraged. Review of the proposals is expected to commence as soon as the proposal is received. Evaluation of proposals is expected to be completed by September 30, If additional information or discussions are needed during this time, the PI(s) will be notified. The selection decision for the winning proposal is expected to be made no later than October 10, Notifications to respondents who were not selected will be completed by this time. Upon notification, Agenda 2020 will promptly begin contract negotiation with the selected PI. Contract negotiations are expected to be completed by December 1, Project Timeline: Projects exceeding 1 year in duration are required to submit an interim report 13 months after the project contract is signed. All projects are expected to provide a final report within 30 days of project completion. If there are unavoidable delays, a no-cost extension not to exceed 6 months can be negotiated. 5. Budget Proposals must include a budget identifying key personnel and estimated costs. Equipment and supplies are not to exceed 10% of total costs. Travel is not to exceed 10% of total costs. For projects where there is a significant institutional contribution, these limits can be waived at the discretion of Agenda 2020 and the funding companies. 6. Qualifications A biographical sketch of each senior participant in the project should be included. This should include a publication list with an emphasis on publications most relevant to the project. The bio and publication list are not to exceed 2 pages for each senior staff person listed. In the biographical sketch, be sure to identify any specific prior experience and skills of relevance to the proposed project. 7. Proposal Evaluation Criteria and Funding Agenda 2020 will evaluate all proposals based on the following criteria. To ensure consideration for this Request for Proposal, your proposal should be complete and include all of the following criteria: 8

9 Overall proposal suitability: proposed solution(s) must address the needs and challenges included herein and be presented in a clear and organized manner. Impact: The likelihood the proposed approach will address the technical challenge. Innovation: The extent to which the proposed work is novel and innovative. If the review team can find it referenced in Rhydholm: Pulping Processes, Interscience Publishers, 1965, the proposal must discuss in some detail how the proposed work will differ from the prior efforts. Team Organization, Capabilities and Qualifications: show how the team has the experience, skill and equipment capabilities to carry out the proposed experimental work. Agenda 2020 will evaluate proposals based on the above criteria. The highest rated proposals will be considered for funding. Provided a sufficient number of supporting member companies are interested in funding the effort, negotiation of a formal agreement to carry out the work will commence. Agenda 2020 expects to have funds available to sponsor three projects in total across the four RFPs that are being issued. But again the funding that has been indicated by member companies is dependent on receiving high quality, responsive proposals that meet the criteria as outlined in the RFP. It is possible that no proposals will meet the criteria and therefore none will be funded. This RFP should not be interpreted as a guarantee that funds will be provided. 8. Proposal Guidelines The proposal shall contain the following information as described more fully in the Proposal Guidelines section beginning on page 11: Total Project Cost Concept Summary A description of the proposed project and how it will address the goals as described in this RFP Project Duration/Timeline/Milestones Innovation: why the proposed work represents an innovative approach to address the challenge Impact Information on the specific technical challenge that will be addressed Proposed Work A description of the approach and the work that will be undertaken; scientific and technical data supporting the approach; alternative approaches considered Team Organization, Capabilities and Qualifications Roles, responsibilities, capabilities, experience of the project team Resources that will be accessed (experimental and analytical laboratories, computing capabilities, etc.) Project Budget 9

10 9. Submission Respondents must submit their proposals electronically by 5 pm (EDT), Friday, September 2, 2016 to the address below: David Turpin, Executive Director Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance david_turpin@agenda2020.org 10

11 RFP HIGH KAPPA OXYGEN DELIGNIFICATION PROCESS & EQUIPMENT DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSAL PREPARATION PROJECT TITLE Project Team Total Project Cost Project Duration 1. Concept Summary Describe the proposed concept with minimal jargon, and explain how it addresses the project purpose. 2. Innovation and Impact Describe how the concept will meet the RFP purpose. Clearly identify the technical challenge that will be solved and how the project will address the challenge. Identify the benefit that would be realized through successful development of the proposed technology. Describe how the proposed effort represents an innovative and potentially transformational solution to the identified technical challenge. Explain the concept s potential to be disruptive compared to existing or emerging technologies. Clearly identify quantitative technical performance and cost targets for the proposed technology. If applicable, compare the targets to current and emerging technologies. 3. Proposed Work Describe the planned technical approach to achieve project objectives. Describe the background, theory, simulation, modeling, experimental data, or other sound engineering and scientific practices or principles that support the proposed approach. Provide specific examples of supporting data and/or appropriate citations to the scientific and technical literature. Describe why the proposed effort is a significant technical challenge and the key technical risks to the project. Does the approach require one or more entirely new technical developments to succeed? How will technical risk be mitigated? Identify techno-economic challenges to be overcome for the proposed technology to be commercially relevant. Discuss alternative approaches considered, if any, and why the proposed approach is most appropriate for the project objectives. Define the final deliverable(s) for the project. 11

12 RFP HIGH KAPPA OXYGEN DELIGNIFICATION PROCESS & EQUIPMENT DESIGN 4. Project Timeline The proposal should include a project timeline with key milestones 5. Team Organization, Capabilities and Qualifications Indicate the roles and responsibilities of the organizations and key personnel that comprise the Project Team. Provide the name, position, and institution of each key team member and describe in 1-2 sentences the skills and experience that he/she brings to the team. Identify key capabilities provided by the organizations comprising the Project Team and how those key capabilities will be used in the proposed effort. Identify (if applicable) previous collaborative efforts among team members relevant to the proposed effort. 6. Project Budget Include information on the funding level required to complete the project, itemized by type of funding (personnel, supplies, overhead, etc.) and project phase. 12