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“ANDRITZ was chosen as the strategic partner for the Huaihua pulp mill based on earlier experience, technologically advanced equipment and solid cooperation.”
Wu Jialin, Chairman, Legal Representative of Tiger
According to Wu Jialing, Chairman and Legal Representative of the Hunan Tiger Forest & Paper Group Co., the idea of a pulp mill near Huaihua in Hunan Province originally came from the local government. However, for various reasons, plans were delayed and postponed. “In 2004, our company decided to build a brand new pulp mill in Huaihua, and we got the full support and approval from the local government, coupled with officials from Hunan Province.”
The integration of forest and paper in a greenfield state-owned mill project with the capacity of 400,000 t/a of bleached softwood kraft pulp soon became one of the top 10 symbolic projects of advancing new-type industrialization in the Hunan Province.
The project consisted of the mill, a special railway, and a 140,000 ha forest base: the total investment being close to RMB 4.3 billion (483 million). Since the technology came primarily from ANDRITZ in Europe and a considerable amount of the equipment was manufactured by ANDRITZ in China, Hunan Juntai Pulp & Paper (JTPP) has become a symbol of excellence in the Chinese paper industry in terms of advanced processes, equipment, automation, and environmental protection.
A new start in a New YearAfter the Chinese New Year in 2007, the work was initiated at JTPP. By August 2008, work on China’s largest bleached softwood kraft mill was complete, and production started. “We had to use 400 tonnes of explosives to prepare the new site, which consisted of hills before,” explains Xu Yuanmei, the President Assistant, Chief Director of Huaihua Project and Legal Representative of Hunan Juntai Pulp & Paper.
As always in China, a solid and trusted cooperation between owner and supplier is important. When the main supplier for this huge
project was considered, “ANDRITZ was chosen as our strategic partner based on our earlier experience and cooperation,” Wu
recalls. This included the full line equipment for an APMP project in Yueyang (the former headquarters of Tiger Group). For ANDRITZ, Tiger was the first customer in China when they entered the market in 1993.
An important element in the selection process was ANDRITZ’s proven capability as a full-line supplier, demonstrated with projects in Brazil and Uruguay. “ANDRITZ has the expertise to not only provide the process systems, but also all the interconnections between the process islands,” says Tian Hongying of ANDRITZ’s Beijing office.
“During the bidding process, ANDRITZ’s scope of supply was the widest among all the competitors,” says He Ganghui, the Vice Director of the Huaihua Project. “We thought about using different suppliers for different departments, but Chinese mills have encountered difficulties in the past with this approach. ANDRITZ’s experience in supplying whole lines prompted us to select them to ensure consistent technical support and coordination.”
“In Huaihua, we chose the full-line production equipment from ANDRITZ, and this project even won the honor of National Science and Technology Advancement Prize in China,” says Xu Yuanmei.
Scope of supplyANDRITZ’s scope of supply comprises the equipment and technologies for wood handling, the fiberline, pulp drying and bale handling, chemical recovery, and white liquor preparation. The Huaihua woodyard boasts the first horizontally fed HHQ-Chipper™ in China, along with debarking drum, screens, chip storage, and ParaScrew™ reclaimers. The debarking and chipping line is designed for 350 m3 sob/h. The mill’s fiber supply is principally softwood (masson pine and fir), but it can also produce bleached hardwood as well.
The fiberline at Huaihua is one of the largest in China consisting of TurboFeed® chip feeding system to a single-vessel
Lo-Solids® digester. In total, six DD Washers are employed for washing, oxygen delignification, and ECF bleaching.
The pulp drying and baling line features the stock preparation, twin wire former dewatering machine, airborne sheet dryer, cutter/layboy, and automated baling line. Sheet width at the cutter is 4.2 m.
For chemical recovery processes, ANDRITZ supplied an evaporation plant optimized for energy efficiency (7+ HD effects) with a capacity of 489 t/h and liquor dry solids at 80%. Heat from the hot weak liquor is utilized for evaporation. The recovery boiler has a capacity of 2200 tds/d and operates at 92 bar and 490º C steam. Within the white liquor plant, Huaihua has the first modern recausticizing plant in China where all solid/liquid separation is performed in filters without a single clarifier. The LimeGreen™ system for green liquor filtration is the first in China. The plant includes a StiroX system for white liquor oxidation.
Ice storms, collapsing bridges, global economyZhou Kunpeng, Chief Engineer of Hunan Juntai Pulp & Paper, lists three major challenges during the project. The first challenge was an ice storm collapsing the Tuojiang Bridge, which directly affected the transport schedule and caused a two-month delay. Secondly, there was some pressure from the environmental protection aspect: during the test runs, the system was not stable and needed further adjustments. And finally, just as the project was put on-stream, the world met with the global financial crisis and the pulp sheet price diminished having a strong impact on the project reaching its full potential benefits.
“In spite of all difficulties, it took us only 10 effective months of site work to finalize the project,” Xu Yuanmei says. “The first 100 days were for civil work, the second 100 days for installation, and the third 100 days for commissioning and start-up. Our speed was so fast that ANDRITZ project managers could not believe it!”
Management by standard“Under the influence of the financial crisis, the pulp price fell to the lowest point in nearly 20 years,” Zhou Kunpeng says. “Therefore, it was really necessary to make the product ratio, quality, consumption, environmental protection, and equipment operation ratio reach design targets quickly.”
Xu Yuanmei tells that they followed a program named “management by standard,” in which design, construction, and the best international practices were all standardized and included. “Only 90 days after start-up, our softwood production reached an average 1143 t/d, and on one day hit 1320 tonnes,” he says. “By our calculations, even if mill design is 400,000 t/a, we think that reaching 450,000 tonnes will be no foreseeable problem.”
Wu Jialing puts the target even higher. Tiger Group’s strategy of today is to reach two million tonnes production per year, and in the future even three million. “For this target, we are looking forward to developing and expanding our relationship and cooperation with ANDRITZ,” he says.
Best consumption figures in ChinaAccording to Xu Yuanmei, Tiger’s pulp quality is very close to the pulp imported from overseas. “We have to compete with them and, therefore, we have an equal quality standard,” he says. “We also have a consumption standard, which includes the consumption of water, energy, power, and various chemicals. At present, our consumption figures are the best in China and our production costs are satisfactory. “The whole system was designed and is running on the most advanced scientific technological equipment available, which is reflected in our management by standards and, therefore, we surpass all local competitors.”
He says that generally speaking, it has been an excellent experience to work with ANDRITZ. “No matter what we do, there is always room for improvement,” Xu Yuanmei explains. “ANDRITZ is a big company. For a project of this size, with technology coming from different countries, different personalities, and different cultural backgrounds, it takes time for everything to efficiently come together.”
He Ganghui adds: “Some of ANDRITZ’s departments make very good arrangements, like in the Yueyang deink pulp project, and the pulp drying line here in Huaihua.”
Key for mutual understanding
Liu Hongbo, General Manager of Hunan Juntai Pulp & Paper, thinks that also the Chinese could learn from the project. “We should have followed strictly the instructions, suggestions, and advice from ANDRITZ’s supervisors from the beginning,” he says. “It would have helped us move forward more effectively, and could have saved time, efficiency, and additional costs. We realize that good communications and understanding each other are the most important issues due to our different cultural backgrounds.”
The fact is, Liu Hongbo states, that ANDRITZ supplied the most advanced and modernized production line in China, which is now running perfectly. “We hope that we get continuous support from ANDRITZ, especially for the performance tests,” Liu Hongbo says. “We have 30,000 tonnes of pulp in storage and we hope that it does not take long to earn back the investment.”
According to ANDRITZ Site Manager, Wolfgang Schweinzger, his company lived up to its promise to supply the most advanced and modern equipment, and he noted that Tiger management fulfilled their promise to produce the best quality product and highest performance operating the mill.
“Although for ANDRITZ, the main mission is accomplished, both partners will continue to cooperate in order to ensure and maintain that the mill performs in a way which meets international mill operation standards,” Schweinzger says. “One subject has become clear, based on the successful start-up and operation of the Huaihua mill: we can supply green, energy-efficient, and the most technically advanced mills to Chinese customers, and to customers all over the world.”
Being a responsible and good corporate citizen“For China, there are good opportunities to increase the number of investments and to improve the level of technology in the pulp and paper industry, as the paper consumption per capita in China is still far behind the rest of the world,” says Laura Han, ANDRITZ Huaihua Project Site Office Manager. “That is also the case in technology, compared with the international level, especially in the environmental issues, which are growing in importance.
“For the Huaihua project, the communications and understanding between a foreign supplier and the local Chinese customer were very critical and crucial issues. I’m sure that with the successful experience of the Huaihua project, Tiger and ANDRITZ will be able to improve on both sides. We are looking forward to further and beneficial cooperation in the pulp and paper field.”
