Summary: | The Swedish pulp and paper industry meets higher demand for energy efficiencyi mprovements with increasing energy prices and changes in the Swedish renewable energy certificate system. One action of energy efficiency improvement is by using secondary heat, that otherwise would have been treated as waste heat, for use in a system with lower temperature demands. The aim of this Master´s thesis is to identify possible secondary heat sources in a typical Swedish pulp and paper mill and to investigate what economic benefits the secondary heat will provide when being used for pre heating of wood chips to a kraft digester. The Master´s thesis focuses on three secondary heat sources; dry warm air, warm water and moisture saturated warm air located inside the pulp or paper mill. Two types of kraft digesters are simulated within this study, a typical Scandinavian digester and a modern twin vessel steam phase digester. Due to quality aspects and low temperature level drying is the drying technology with dry warm air rejected. Using warm water in direct contact with wood chips increases the quantity of water to the evaporation plant and thus reduced pulp or paper production and is therefore also rejected. The thesis nevertheless indicates a goodopportunity for further investigation of using moisture saturated warm air for preheating of wood chips. The humid air, from a drying machine or produced from secondary heat warm water, is used in a theoretical modified belt drier. Conservative assumptions regarding heat transfer and investment cost calculations yield a yearly net saving for a typical Swedish pulp mill at over 5 MSEK with a return on investment at 7years.
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