Press Box

Report from the review Industrie et Commerce

The thermo-mechanical pulping facility at Papier Masson

The largest production line in the world!

by Pierre Allard

In the pulp and paper industry, where giants like Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater, Donohue, Domtar and others rub shoulders, one might be inclined to think that a small player like Papier Masson Ltée would go almost unnoticed…

And yet, these days, these “Goliaths” are quite definitely taking a closer look at what is happening in Masson-Angers, some 30 km east of Hull, where newsprint manufacturer Papier Masson Ltée is conducting some trial runs of an original, audacious thermo-mechanical pulping or TMP system.

“It’s something unique in the industry,” states Sylvain Bussière, one of the senior engineers of the $158-million project and Pulp Production Manager at Papier Masson Ltée. “All the other newsprint manufacturers using the TMP process have at least two production lines. If they want to produce 1,000 tonnes of pulp per day, they set up two lines in parallel, with each producing 500 tonnes. Here at Masson-Angers, we are building only one line, the largest in the world. Before today no mill has produced 740 tonnes per day using only one production line.”

Audacity, originality, innovation

The risk is real but calculated. Those who know the management team at Papier Masson Ltée, who inherited a corporate culture developed while the mill was owned by Industries James Maclaren, will not be surprised. Audacity, originality and innovation have been cultivated and encouraged for a long time.

In 1995, the mill deployed the first effective system for controlling dangerous substances in an industrial setting, which was invented on site. In 1996, Papier Masson Ltée became the first mill in Canada to recycle more than 96% of its residue. Its practice of employee participation in decision-making processes has also garnered interest beyond our borders!

That it is now daring to do what others dared not to do on a production line is not surprising. For their part, the new owners of Papier Masson Ltée—ENRON, two large pension funds and Ashok Narang, CEO of Papier Masson Ltée—have complete confidence in the team in place, which has proved itself amply.

“If TMP had been new technology, we would not have run the risk of having only one production line,” noted Jacques Thériault, Manager, Human Resources at Papier Masson Ltée. “But it is a proven technology that has been around for 20 years.”

A little higher, a little further

“After all,” adds Sylvain Bussière, “we are working with the laws of physics, chemistry and thermodynamics. These laws do not change. What we are doing is going a little higher, a little further. Pushing a refiner to produce 740 tonnes of pulp in a single day has never been done.”

Until recently, pulping facilities could not handle this kind of volume. “Toward the end of the 1980s,” he adds, “it would take three refining lines to achieve this. During the 1990s, the technology allowed for going from three lines to two. We are now at the point where technology is ready for only one line. Somebody has to be the first to try, and we are volunteering.”

“When we go to industry conventions, others find us a bit of a dare-devil. They find it hard to believe that we have no security net, no second line. They wonder if we would be capable of feeding the paper machine. We are convinced we can. What is more, our new installation delivers stronger paper at substantial savings. By just going from two lines to one represents savings of $30 million in equipment and the size of the building housing it,” adds Sylvain Bussière.

Investissement Québec’s contribution

Investissement Québec, which has closely followed the project, did not hesitate to join the effort in December 1999 and make a financial contribution of $9.6 million. According to Bernard Landry, Québec’s Deputy Prime Minister, “This investment ties in perfectly with the technology and business strategy of the Ministère des Ressources naturelles which targets, among other things, to help as much as possible our paper manufacturers to achieve world-class status.”

CEO Ashok Narang makes it clear that the ultimate goal of Papier Masson Ltée is to bring its mill “into the first quartile of North American producers in the areas of production cost and product quality. This technologically advanced thermo-mechanical pulping will enable us to reach higher standards of quality and increase the productivity of the paper machine.”

Switching over to the TMP process will be done all at once within a few weeks. It will serve no purpose to operate the former pulping facility simultaneously, even temporarily, since Papier Masson Ltée has only one paper machine. “Even if we could feed it with 1000 tonnes a day, the paper machine could not handle the volume,” clarified Mr. Thériault. “We visited a lot of mills prior to making our decision, and the advice we got discouraged keeping the two systems in operation.”

Reduced labour force, increase production

“For the first week, we will keep the people in the mechanical pulp and chemical pulp departments on stand-by, but no more. Once we conclude that we can produce at the anticipated rate, we will immediately close the former departments.” This will entail the demolition of structures in the short or long term, as well as abandoning the woodyard, since we will no longer need roundwood, and a net loss of about 110 jobs.

“Part of the former facilities will be dismantled right away, and another part will be kept for other possible uses. If we would ever want to run a sawmill nearby, because we need wood chips, we have equipment in the woodyard that could be transferred to the sawmill, such as a log debarker “which is worth millions”. In the long term, however, we expect that these buildings will be taken down.”

The combination of all these factors—savings in space and equipment, a reduced labour force, advanced technology, superior product quality—will give Papier Masson Ltée the competitive advantage that had, at the outset, caught the interest of ENRON, when Nexfor had announced in August 1997 its intention to sell the newsprint mill.

The “Alberta Newsprint” of the east?

ENRON, an energy and public utilities broker, had no expertise in newsprint but wanted to acquire it for the purposes of future investments. Sensing it was a good business opportunity, ENRON hired some Montréal-based experts, NLK Consultants, to assess the mill at Masson-Angers. Based on their research, they advised acquiring it, but only if there was also an investment to install a thermo-mechanical pulping facility.

According to NLK, Papier Masson Ltée had the potential of becoming as profitable and efficient as Alberta Newsprint, considered to be the jewel of all paper mills in western Canada. “Our labour force here is specialized and continuously undergoing training. There is a dynamic among our employees in that they are inclined to learn, develop and improve professionally,” explained Jacques Thériault.

It may also be noted that Papier Masson Ltée is well situated in relation to its clients in the northeast United States. Having established the profitability of the project, ENRON approached two huge pension funds ready to invest and found in Ashok Narang a CEO who knew both the pulp and paper industry and the world of finance. Papier Masson Ltée was created in the summer of 1998 and sales transaction took place on December 18, 1998. The budget: $158 million.

In March 1999, the project proposal repeatedly turned by the former owner, Nexfor, because it did not mesh well with its orientation, was approved by the new Board of Directors. The $158-million included the new TMP facility and related costs, such as changes to the finishing processes and improvements to the paper machine.

The vocation of Papier Masson Ltée is now clear: to be one of the best manufacturers of quality newsprint at a good price. Once this objective is reached, the company may begin to dream about expansion. Some interest is already being shown for the mill in Chandler. “There is a possible synergy between us and Chandler or another mill. We are interested in visiting manufacturing mills further down the road. We aren’t making any calls right now, but if someone calls us, we will answer. Toward fall may perhaps be a good time,” noted Mr. Thériault.

What is thermo-mechanical pulping?

Until now, Papier Masson Ltée used two main types of pulp:

• Mechanically ground pulp, prepared without the addition of any chemical products and without any thermal treatment. The mechanical process alone was used to break down the wood fibres. The four-foot logs were literally crushed between stones.

• Chemical pulp, a ultra-high-yield sulphite pulp (UHYS). This pulp is prepared by cooking wood chips in an acid solution for four hours. These thermal and chemical treatments soften the wood chips so less mechanical action is required.

Each type of process has its advantages. “Ultra-high-yield pulp makes a stronger paper because it contains very long fibres, while the very, very short fibres in mechanical pulp allows us to control the printing properties and opacity of the paper,” explained Sylvain Bussière, Pulp Production Manager.

Strength is also added to the paper by adding deinked pulp from Cap-de-la-Madeleine (10 to 15 percent) and some softwood kraft pulp (less than 2%). TMP pulp is prepared mechanically from black spruce and fir wood chips that have been preconditioned with heat. There are no more logs. This process achieves yields of 93%, meaning that about 7% of the fibre is dissolved because of the heat. Heat creates a compromise between the two types of pulp. The result is higher quality pulp, every bit as resistant to tearing but much more elastic.

How does thermo-mechanical pulping work?

1. The wood chips arrive by truck.
2. A chip dumper unloads the trucks.
3. Conveyors move the wood chips to the pile stacker.
4. Two piles of wood chips are stacked (one for wood chips from north of Mont-Laurier, the other for those from south of Mont-Laurier).
5. Beneath the piles of wood chips, metering screws automatically retrieve wood chips.
6. A conveyor takes the wood chips to the chip sorter.
7. The sorter removes rocks, sawdust, substandard wood chips and other undesirable matter.
8. The cleaned wood chips enter the TMP refiner, going first to the preheating silo, where they are subjected to 90° Celsius heat for 45 minutes.
9. The softened wood chips enter the washing system, which is a hot-water bath where they are soaked. This allows for removing any remaining sand and stones.
10. The chips are moved then to silo 2, where they are subjected to 90° heat for 15 minutes. Softened even more, the wood chips are compressed by a compression screw.
11. Where they entered dry, they now leave with about 1 kg of water per 1 kg of fibres.
12. The wood chips move to a preheater and are subjected to 105° heat for two minutes.
13. The wood chips then enter the primary refiner.
14. At the secondary refiner, the fibres now have an acceptable length.
15. The tertiary refiner is used for quality purposes.
16. Primary and secondary screening to remove inadequately defibrated fibres.
17. The accepted fibres move to a disk filter where the pulp is thickened for storage.
18. The rejected fibres go through another step of refining and screening.
19. The thermo-mechanical pulp is ready for use by the paper machine

News: Press Releases | Press Box

About Us| Mill Tour | Sales | Environment | News | Getting there | Contacts | Home | Français