This year marked the 100th anniversary of the PAPTAC annual conference of the Canadian pulp and paper industry, PaperWeek 2014. The event brought together key players from pulp and paper mills and head officers, equipment and service suppliers, government, research institutes, universities, consulting firms, utility service providers, and allied industries. The following five PPC researchers attended the conference on Feb. 3-6 in Montreal: Ehsan Zaman, Mohamad Shanbghazani, Sudipta Kumar Mitra, Abbas Nikbakht, and Xue Feng (Harry) Chang.
The team of researchers attended several FIBRE day talks, contributed to the student poster session, one presented a technical paper, attended key note speeches where they learned about the future of the pulp and paper industry, and took the initiative to organize several tours while in Montreal.
Ehsan Zaman, Abbas Nikbakht, Paul-André Gagnon, Converting Manager, Cascades, Mohamad ShanbGhazani, Xue Feng Chang at the CASCADE facilities.
First up was a tour of the Cascades, a tissue company. The team toured the factory and got to observe first-hand the start to finish process of making tissue. Next up was a visit to University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières where the team toured a research lab and pilot plant. The last tour was given by John Schmidt, Manager University Partnerships and Research Planning at FPInnovations. The FPInnovations labs were very impressive, especially the paper machine which is very unique in the industry.
Back at the conference the student poster session not only provided an excellent networking
opportunity, but also allowed for some healthy competition. The following posters were presented by the PPC research team:
“Observation of the turbulent transition of a fibre suspension in hagen-poiseuille flow”
by Abbas Nikbakht
“Fractionation of MFC using two viscoplastic fluids: Towards continuous device”
by Mohammad ShanbGhazani
“Numerical Study of Hydrocyclone Flow Field: Effect of Geometrical and Flow Parameters”
by Ehsan Zaman
PaperWeek 2014 Winning Poster
** Congratulations to Ehsan on his award winning poster presentation **
Ehsan Zaman is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering and has been conducting his research at the PPC for the last three years. This was Ehsan’s first time at the PaperWeek conference, and also the first time winning the top prize for his poster:
Numerical Study of Hydrocyclone Flow Field: Effect of Geometrical and Flow Parameters
Hydrocyclones are used in the pulp and paper industry for a wide range of purposes including removal of waxes, stickies and adhesives from recycled pulp stock; separation of high and low density contaminants; removal of dirt, grit, and sand; shive, bark, and stone cell removal; pulp stock deaeration; plastic contaminant removal; and fibre fractionation.
The current work presents numerical simulations of hydrocyclone flow field performed by means of ANSYS FLUENT. The influence of geometrical and flow parameters on removal efficiency was
investigated. This study provides insight into the hydrocyclone fractionation mechanism with
particular application to vessel element removal.
Due to the multiple issues they cause, vessel element removal from a fibrous suspension has historically been desirable. Vessel picking phenomenon is the most notorious problem vessels cause. It is interesting to know that the benefits of the vessel element removal can potentially be twofold. While the vessel element poor stream (the accepts) is passed on for further processing for paper production, the vessel element rich stream (the reject) can be used in the development of ‘next generation’ pulp and paper products. In other words, the undesirable low-value vessel element pulp fraction in the rejects may be used as raw material for Cellulose Nano Crystalline (CNC) production. CNC can be used in banknotes, passports, and certificates and generally in intelligence inks capable of storing digital information. It also has applications in automotive, aerospace, and construction industries as reinforcement in Nano composites of various polymer matrices, and pharmaceutical tablets and food production additives, such as stabilizers, texturing agents and fat replacers.