(News from RISI) – Suzano Pulp and Paper has signed a $58 million order for two tissue paper machines (PM) to be installed at the company’s Mucuri and Imperatriz mills in northeast Brazil.

Each PM will have capacity to produce 60,000tpy and Suzano expects to start construction in May.

Tissue production is expected to start-up at Imperatriz in the third quarter of 2017 and at Mucuri in the fourth quarter of the same year.

Both mills will produce jumbo rolls to be supplied to toilet paper converters in the northeast region of Brazil.

Yes, there is. Rather than measuring the amount of steam that you use, measure the amount of steam that you lose. The steam consumption (amount of steam used per hour) is, by itself, an inadequate measure. A high value could be the result of either drying a lot of paper or venting a lot of steam. One is good. The other is bad. Indexing the amount of steam used with amount of water evaporated (pounds of steam per hour per pound of water evaporated) is a better metric, but significant amount of energy can easily be lost in the "noise" of this metric. 

A better approach is to simply look for the steam losses. Specifically, look for steam that is vented to the atmosphere or vented to condenser tanks. Look for condensate that is dumped to a sewer and look for hot air that is exhausted from the dryer hood to the atmosphere. These are direct measurements of energy losses and they are direct indications of potential areas for energy recovery.

Two common metrics for measuring paper drying efficiency are drying load (amount of water evaporated per hour) and steam consumption (amount of steam used per hour). The Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) recommends these metrics be indexed by the dryer surface area (resulting in pounds of water evaporated per hour per square feet of dryer surface area) and by the amount of water evaporated (resulting in pounds of steam per hour per pound of water evaporated). The indexed values are better indicators of dryer performance and overall energy efficiency of the drying process. Indexed values can be compared to similar machines as a benchmark of performance. 

(News from RISI) – Brazil’s Suzano has announced a Real425 million investment in two tissue paper machines, each with capacity to produce 60,000tpy.

One PM will be installed at its Mucuri plant and the other one at the Imperatriz unit – both will produce jumbo rolls to be supplied to toilet paper converters in the northeast region of Brazil. Suzano CEO Walter Schalka said: “We want to sell jumbo rolls to national and international clients that want to operate in northeast Brazil, then they will be able to sell toilet paper wherever they want. This way, we’ll avoid the migration of jumbo rolls from southeast to northeast Brazil, which has a high cost.”

The executive added that Suzano has also obtained permit to convert the paper produced at its new tissue machines, but it doesn’t have plans to do it in the short term. The company plans to start up the Imperatriz tissue PM at the end of the third quarter of 2017 and the Mucuri PM at the fourth quarter of 2017.