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After a sometimes problematic startup period, PM 1 at APRIL's Kerinci mill is delivering the goods. And there is much more to come...
by Jim Kenny
Riaupaper comes of age despite the uncertainties
Talk about a tough startup. APRIL's (Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings) new Riaupaper PM at Kerinci could well be a contender for one of the world's most "interesting" paper projects for some time. Not only was the startup team fighting against the normal challenges that you would expect to come with building a new 350,000 ton/yr capacity printing paper machine in the middle of the jungle, but southeast Asia's financial crisis and Indonesia's fires conspired to complicate the process even further.
On site, the startup team building the new PM was affected by the smog from the fires. As the paper unit's general manager, Ulf Raij, explained, "The health of the expatriates did go down. It didn't seem to bother the locals, but gradually quite a lot of the Europeans and North Americans did get affected by sore throats and flu etc, which is the last thing you want when you're working toward a startup. It's always quite hard on a startup anyway, when you work up to 20 hr/day, seven days a week for two or three weeks. So if you aren't in good shape before you begin then it's going to be a problem and that was a worry at the time."
Southeast Asia's financial crisis hit Indonesia hard as the value of the rupiah dropped dramatically and this also affected the program. The knock-on effects meant short-term fiscal problems for APRIL, with the result that the project was delayed and some contractors went off site. These events set the startup back by more than three months, but perhaps just as importantly, the disturbance had an impact on the scheduling of the works. "It was a very frustrating time," Raij admits. "What was worse was that we couldn't even do very much with the extra time - we had a beautiful new machine finished and sitting there, but we didn't have any of the ancillary equipment up and running."
 APRIL hopes to secure two million tons/yr of pulp capacity and 700,000 tons/yr of uncoated woodfree capacity at the Kerinci site at the end of 2000
Even at the end of April when the PM had been working for almost three weeks, the finishing section was far from complete and the winding units were still to become fully operational. Although he does agree that contractual relations were strained at times, Raij remains philosophical about the problems. "Well, I suppose we have to take some responsibility for this as well, taking into account what happened," he says.
With the uncoated woodfree PM now running well, Raij is happy to leave these problems behind and he still regards the PM startup as "excellent". Early product samples have shown that Riaupaper can attain world class quality levels and Raij is more than happy about the way things are now running, even if it did take a little longer to get there than he liked.
Of course, the new machine cannot be considered in isolation. PM 1 is only the first of two new PMs planned for the site, forming one part of a jigsaw that will see APRIL secure two million tons/yr of pulp capacity and 700,000 tons/yr of uncoated woodfree capacity at the Kerinci site at the end of 2000.
Added to that, the alliance with UPM-Kymmene and a new 350,000 ton/yr uncoated woodfree paper machine at Changshu near Shanghai in China are also contributing to a wider strategy that will see APRIL's global paper interests expand significantly over the next few years.
Undoubtedly, the company has ambitious plans for the future and a cursory examination of the 3 km by 1.5 km Kerinci layout shows that the site could feasibly become home to six or more paper machines in the future. But whether APRIL will choose to take this route and the timing of future investments will depend on how soon and how well southeast Asia recovers from its financial woes, as well as how the market grows in the medium and long term.
On a more practical level, the new capacity also meant that APRIL had to provide
a massive boost for the infrastructure of the mill to accommodate the two new paper PMs and the increase in pulp capacity from 750,000 tons/yr to two million tons/yr.
A sister company within the RGM International group, Pec-Tech, was drafted in to supervise this aspect of the development as well as working as turnkey contractor for the PM scheme. Riaupaper oversaw the project as a partner supplying the papermaking know-how and Jaakko Pöyry was also heavily involved as consultant on many elements of the scheme.
 Bleached hardwood kraft pulp is produced from wood gathered from 200,000 ha of concession land scattered around the site
Several of the infrastructure upgrades cut across both the pulp and the paper expansion projects. As the pulp unit's general manager, Lorne Byzyna, pointed out, "The water and effluent treatment plants already had a 40% overcapacity when we started, but we're doubling the plant capacity to look after all of our future needs. The standards are also going to be equal to anywhere else in the world. We've looked at the discharge standards in Canada, the USA and Scandinavia and we intend to be as good as any of them."
The Kampar river nearby, where APRIL draws its water supplies, is so large that the Kerinci mill's demand accounts for less than 0.5% of the flow. The mill uses 45 m/ton of pulp produced, but it intends to reduce that to 35 m/ton as newer, more efficient equipment comes on stream. Not only that, but the new effluent treatment units from Ion Exchange and Ahlstrom Aquaflow should help keep the mill's discharge levels well within conventional targets and far below Indonesian requirements. On the chemical side, Chemetics is doubling the mill's 55 ton/day chlorine dioxide production capacity and adding extra capacity to provide the other chemicals needed to keep the PMs and effluent treatment facilities self-sufficient.
But one of the most crucial aspects of the modernization are the two new recovery boilers from Kvaerner. This will help boost the mill's power output from its current 135 MW to 435 MW by 2000. The modernization program also provided HPD with a contract for the evaporators, while Foster Wheeler provided a new power boiler that
is just about to go on line. ABB is the supplier for the new turbines and generators.
A new recausticizing unit has also been ordered from Ahlstrom, while Siemens is given the task of upgrading the site's electrical distribution to a 150 kV system.
In May, the power demand balance was so tight that a few elements of the PM were not put into operation straight away, such as the power-hungry pitch removal system on the approach. Consequently, the extra power capability will be much appreciated by everyone at the mill. The mill also supplies all of the water and electricity needs of the supporting town site.
More chips
The new PM at Kerinci uses a mixture of raw materials. Bleached softwood kraft market pulp and GCC (ground calcium carbonate) supplement the bleached mixed Indonesian hardwood kraft pulp that constitutes the bulk of the furnish. The bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp is produced from wood gathered in 200,000 ha of concession land scattered in seven sectors around the site. The furthest of these is 140 km away, but the average haul distance is far less.
As mentioned, recent events in Asia have forced APRIL to restructure the timing of its investment program at Kerinci, which has put the construction of the second fiber line into what Byzyna describes as a "holding pattern". Work on the new 1.1 million ton/yr Riau II pulp line is still progressing, although at a much slower pace. The new line is 40% complete and the upgrade of Riau I from 750,000 tons/yr to 900,000 tons/yr is still expected to be finalized by the beginning of next year.
At present, between 400-500 trucks arrive at the mill each day, bringing 8,000-9,000 tons of pulpwood logs on to the site. The wood is taken to the two woodhandling lines, and the mill is in the process of adding further capacity in the woodyard. At present, the logs go through one of the two dry debarkers before going on to the chipping lines. There are two chippers in each process line, but these will eventually be supplemented by a further four chip lines as the expansion proceeds. The same supplier that installed the original woodyard, Sunds, will deliver the new woodhandling equipment.
As the mill is still taking mixed tropical hardwood from the plantation areas, the range of diameters mean that approximately 5% of the logs have to be split before they can be fed into the two chipper lines. But that is not the only problem that the mill has to deal with as a result of the 50 or more varieties included in the hardwood mix. "The wood is so hard and dense that the chip knives only last 45 minutes before we have to change them. We've got three knife sharpeners working flat out and we can turn around a new set in about 30 minutes, so we can keep up. But it's not easy to work with," Byzyna explains. "Things should get a lot easier when we start switching to acacia."
Aside from the knife use, the pitch levels in the pulpwood mix have tested the skills of the process team to the limit. "We have learned to manage the resin problems using blending as well as log and chip age management, but it's been a long process," Byzyna says. Wood issues are obviously not all problematic though. Multifuel boilers in operation at the site contribute an impressive 30% of the mill's total energy output using bark and the fines from the woodyard.
Eating it up
The mill keeps a 10-day supply of chips on hand and these are fed into a series of Sunds Superbatch digesters. When the second line is complete, Riaupulp (the pulp unit of the Kerinci mill operation) will have 28 digesters on site, representing the largest concentration of digester capacity in the world, according to Byzyna.
 There are two chippers in each process line, but a further four chip lines are expected as the expansion proceeds
On Riau I, the digesters cook the chips using a five-hour cycle at temperatures up to 165C. The kappa number at this stage is 17. Washing and screening come next, followed by oxygen delignification to kappa 10. The pulp has an ISO brightness of 50% by the time it reaches the bleaching towers. The bleaching process operates under ECF (elemental chlorine-free) conditions, although the mill does have the ability to switch over to TCF (totally chlorine-free), should the market demand it. For now though, the bleaching sequence remains
O D Eo Dn D and the target brightness is the market pulp standard of 90% ISO. The bulk of the equipment from the digesters through to the bleach stage was provided by Sunds. Riau I utilizes a mixture of Elsag Bailey and ABB automation systems, but ABB is gradually being phased in for all the systems over the next few years.
APRIL is happy with the performance of Riau I, but it has introduced some changes for the second fiber line. "We're using the same system basically, but the new line is slightly different from Riau I. For example, on line two there will be no filter drum washers and the digesters are going to be bigger. We've got 20 wash presses on Riau II and the digesters are 400 m instead of 350 m," Byzyna explains.
As the plantations mature and the new pulp line comes on stream, the operation of the pulp process will gradually improve in efficiency. One plan is that Riau I will be dedicated to pulping acacia mangium when enough supplies are available (probably 2004), while the second line will run mixed Indonesian hardwood until the mill is fully sustainable on acacia plantation resources (around 2007/2008). It is still possible that
the mill may choose a different setup though, but this will depend on the market price for acacia pulp as much as the operational efficiency of the two PMs and the output quality.
"The mixed tropical hardwood gives a yield of about 45%, but with the acacia we expect that to go up to 50-51%," says Byzyna. "As well as that,
our mixed tropical hardwood is closer to southern mixed hardwood in quality, but with the acacia we should be getting up to eucalyptus-type properties."
Staying wet
Two Voith pulp machines and two ABB Flakt dryers can deliver the present 2,000 tons/day average production capacity and can surge up to 3,000 tons/day. But for the new paper machine, the hardwood portion of the pulp normally bypasses this final section of the pulp process. Instead, it is being pumped directly through to a new stock preparation unit designed as part of the Riaupaper project. By running the low consistency pulp straight to the machine, APRIL will save the costs of drying and transportation.
Riaupaper has installed a significant amount of refining capacity before the new PM in an attempt to reduce the effects of any excess pitch in the pulp supply. In this section there are three possible pulp treatments, depending on the source material. For example, the imported softwood market pulp is simply put through a pulper and a thick stock cleaner before some light refining. Similarly, the broke does not see much processing as it is refined and mixed back into the machine chest. But the hardwood pulp goes through an elaborate pitch removal process - now that the mill can spare the extra power.
The pitch removal system takes pulp at 12-15% from a high density storage tower and the diluted flow goes through both forward and reverse cleaning to remove heavy and light contaminants. After cleaning, the accepts are dewatered over a disk filter and the whitewater from here is sent on to a microfiltration unit that flocculates the pitch for extraction. Most of the equipment in this section is supplied by Tetra Laval Celleco.
After this stage, the hardwood pulp line takes the flow through conical refiners, which operate in two parallel lines with three refiners in each, and from there into the mixing section. The two refiners for the softwood pulp mean that there are eight Conflo units in all. An array of Neles-Jamesbury valves also allows the operators to switch the flow between the lines as they please. As Raij pointed out at the end of April before the pitch removal unit started up, "The refining performance we've seen so far has been very good even without this unit in operation. We've been keeping an eye out for spots in the paper just in case, but so far we haven't seen any problems and with the pitch removal working we won't need to bother about it in the future."
GCC (ground calcium carbonate) filler is added at the machine chest and the pulp mix goes through Celleco centrifugal cleaners, deaeration and mechanical screens as a two-motor system transports the flow to the Jetmatic dilution-controlled headbox. In the future, the mill intends to set up a GCC plant based on marble in joint venture with the UK-based supplier, ECC. But for now, the mill has secured supplies of GCC powder from Asia. "At the moment, the filler content varies from 15-18%, but we aim to get that up to 20%," Raij explains. In future, a typical wood consumption ratio will be 85:15 for hardwood versus softwood, while filler will account for 18% or more of the total sheet weight.
According to Raij, Kerinci is the first mill in Asia to introduce ASA (alkenyl succinic anhydride) sizing, rather than AKD (alkyl ketene dimer), and he is pleased with the performance of the system to date. Ceytec provided the technology used to make up the ASA size on site, also providing the emulsion which is mixed in with starch sourced directly by the mill. Other paper additives are prepared at the chemical plant supplied by Cellier.
The new PM
The new Valmet paper machine has a trim width of 8.65 m and a design speed of 1,500 m/min. The PM has a basis weight range of 50-120 g/m2, but during the startup the bulk of the output has been at 70 g/m2 and 80 g/m2. The furnish reaches the Sym-Flo HS D headbox at 0.25-0.35% consistency before it hits Valmet's Speed Former MB horizontal gap former. "The headbox also has edge flow extraction which works very well, and for me the whole profile has been wonderful so far," Raij says. "In fact it's been so good that we haven't really looked at how to improve it yet."
In the Sym-Press II 3B press, the "3" implies that this a three-nip press, while the "B" means that it has a shoe press included. The first nip is a double-felted suction press with a bottom-controlled crown system. This is followed by a ceramic press roll in the second nip position. "We decided to go for this Valrok ceramic center press roll. Everyone was talking about the potential for pitch problems, so it was this section of the machine design that gave me nightmares," Raij explains. "As it's turned out though, it's been beautiful. There have been absolutely no problems with the release of the web that we can see, just a perfectly straight line." The third "nip" is a polyurethane-covered shoe press and the web leaves the press section of the machine with a consistency of 42-45%. (Valmet has guaranteed 42%, but Raij reckons it is closer to 45%).
In a slightly more unusual setup than most modern PMs, APRIL has opted to follow the press section with eight single-tier drying groups, using vacuum rolls on the bottom and drying rolls on top. An ABB Flakt hood is also included. The ABB frequency-controlled drives and the Sym-Run dryers mean that the system is not short of drying capacity. But as Raij points out, "The question was, will this be a two-sided sheet? Obviously, it's much easier to run single-tier dryers and so far we've had no problems with two-sidedness - curl and smoothness seem to be fine." Surface starch sizing is added via rod applicators on the Sym-Sizer size press.
Chrome finish
The sizing section is followed by two chrome-plated drying cylinders designed to help minimize the risk of picking. A short single-tier dryer section is then followed by a two-tier group designed to alleviate any tendency toward curl. The same problem can also be addressed on the two Opti-Soft calenders in the next section if necessary. This pair of soft-nip calenders are both oil heated and with crown compensation in 60 sections across the machine's width. As a result, they also have a good potential to reduce two-sidedness and improve curl characteristics. "There was a debate about whether we could get away with one calender, but then you're in trouble if you choose the wrong one or if it went down for any reason," Raij points out.
Having seen the performance of the PM to date though, Raij does not expect to find any two-sidedness that cannot be dealt with by the double-tier dryer section and/or the soft calenders.
Opti-Reel wind-up completes the heavy equipment on the PM, but obviously such a large and complex machine requires a significant amount of automation. ABB's QCS (quality control system) and DCS (distributed control system) make up the bulk of the automation on the machine. One sensor frame at the size press scans for moisture, basis weight, filler and whiteness, while these basic parameters are supplemented by measurements - basis weight, moisture and caliper - taken by another frame located in the finishing section. The mill-wide production management information system also comes from ABB, while Valmet's Damatic technology also plays its part on the machine logic. VIB moisture control is incorporated into the system and a paper laboratory using Lorentzen & Wettre equipment is also situated alongside the PM to provide on-the-spot analyzes of the output. Added to that, APRIL is also installing a camera-based web break analyzer from Hildeco as well as utilizing a Sensodec equipment monitoring system to improve maintenance efficiency.
The layout of the new PM is slightly different from other modern machines with eight single-tier drying groups following the press section
"We're very pleased with the PM startup," says Raij. "The only thing we've had a bit of trouble with is the tail-threading. The problem was that it was too strong when we started and it kept wrapping the cylinders, so I had to stand there and catch the tail as it was shooting up and ripping it off. It was like sack kraft because we started with about 40% softwood in the mix as we were being very conservative on the initial runs. We dropped down to 30:70 [softwood/hardwood] and now we're at 20:80, aiming for 15:85."
The finishing section did prove problematic during the startup phase as Raij explains, "There were a few technical problems, but they got sorted out." The idea is that the two machines will eventually share three winders between them, with a salvage winder on standby. The third winder is not included at this stage of the development, but delays on the startup of the first and the "shared" winder did create a bottleneck as production was being ramped up.
The two Jagenberg Vari-Step two-drum winders operate at a maximum speed of 2,500 m/min and they can produce reels of up to 1,600 mm in diameter. The salvage winder has a similar specification and all the winders have a trim conveying system to a trim pulper. Core Link supplied the fully automated core handling section, which included a core cutter with set cart loading for further transport of cut cores to the winder.
A cool cut
A Valmet Hollola roll conveyor system takes the reels either direct to sheeting or to the Pesmel roll wrapping unit and into the automated intermediate roll storage warehousing unit supplied by one of the few non-European contractors on this project - SMC of Korea. Folio sheeting and the cut-size capabilities are all delivered by Bielomatik. This stage of the operation takes place in an air-conditioned environment to reduce the dangers of curling or rippling. The folio line has automated ream wrapping, labeling, palletizing and shrink-wrapping facilities, but it is the three cut-size lines with a capacity of 250,000 tons/yr in total that APRIL will expect to deliver most of the mill's output volume. As Raij points out, "We even have enough additional space here for a fourth and a fifth cut-size line, and if we want to extend the building, there is the potential for a sixth, which would take us very close to the paper capacity."
APRIL is very keen on implementing the concept of "hot sheeting", where reels go straight from the winder to the sheeters. "Hot loading" is a similar idea, which will see the cut-size units deliver their output straight onto containers sitting in nine parallel loading bays. The main buffer will be the port on the river some 40 km away, from where the output will be loaded on to barges and transported to Singapore for worldwide distribution. "Even though we're out here on the island of Sumatra, from a shipping point of view our position is actually very good," Byzyna explains. "It's only a three to five week lead time, which we think is pretty good."
Where now?
The initial production volumes from the new machine went mainly to the Middle East and to domestic customers. But under normal circumstances, Riaupaper's output will be delivered around the globe through the strategic marketing alliances that APRIL has set up with UPM-Kymmene of Finland, Champion in the USA, Dai Ei in Japan and Bomo/Cypap in the Middle East.
Another result of the Asian financial crisis is that business issues are - quite rightly many would say - taking precedence of "papermaking". In other words, the productivity optimization of PM 1 will have to take second place behind filling customer orders so that the machine can start paying for itself as quickly as possible.
From what he has seen so far, Raij is in no doubt that the combination of low pulp production costs (an incredible $174/ton in the first quarter of 1998) and world class production quality will keep PM 1 fully utilized for the foreseeable future.
Indonesia was originally expected to form a substantial part of the market for the new PM 1's output, but given the state of the domestic market it seems unlikely that it will soak up too much of the production for the moment. In the meantime though, Raij points out that demand across the region is slowly starting to pick up again and with a high quality product the mill can look forward to making a decent profit.
Inevitably though, the financial crisis has hit the program for Kerinci's proposed PM 2. APRIL is concentrating its efforts on the new Chinese machine in the medium term, but work is still expected to get under way on PM 2 in approximately 13 months. So the next big landmark for Kerinci looks like being the startup of Riaupulp II in the second half of 1999.
Building the skills base in Indonesia
APRIL is not alone in finding it difficult to secure the skills it will need to make the most of its new PM at the Kerinci mill. Like many other pulp and paper companies operating in the Indonesian forest products sector, it has found that the skills it needs either have to be taught, or bought in the form of an expensive expatriate workforce.
As the paper unit's general manager, Ulf Raij, explains, the company was committed early on in the Riaupaper project to building the workforce it needed from the ground up. In practice, that meant taking the best paper school graduates the company could find and then taking them through their paces in Indonesia, as well as in Europe where they could train directly with the suppliers.
"It was fairly expensive for us. For example, when we sent them to Finland, we also had to provide them with a whole set of warm clothes, because you couldn't have them landing at Helsinki airport in the early Spring with the clothes they normally wear out here," Raij explains.
With so many other companies involved in Indonesia's rapidly expanding forest products sector as well, the mill team has been working on an incentive program that will help keep the staff in Kerinci for the long haul. As a result, the plan is that each operator is assigned to a particular position in a workgroup after basic training. From here though, the new operators are encouraged to study in order to learn another job within the group. If successful they get a 20% pay rise and later the opportunity to study for a third position and so on. Potentially, the best operators will progress to a position where they can operate within all sections of the mill and they will acheive a pay increase of up to 100% into the bargain.
"For me it's great," says Raij. "It's an opportunity to do all the things that you would never be able to do back in Sweden with the traditions there. It's also a great incentive for them, and even if someone does decide to leave and move back nearer his original home or go to another mill, we will have few problems filling the vacancy and we can just say good luck."
The company is set up so that it can cover all the aspects of the business, but there is one exception - there is only one planning position, which is placed in the marketing department. Far from being an oversight, Raij is very keen that operations and sales should work closely together. As a result, the production manager and superintendent are seated just 30 m away from the marketing manager and the planner in the new office building at the mill site. "I suppose it's a very un-Indonesian way of working, but I don't think that you should have a lot of people just because they're cheap to employ. The fewer people you have, the more efficiently they communicate," Raij explains. "The whole idea is that we get them working together. We get the sales guys to understand the technical issues involved, and we get the operations people to bother about customers expectations."
Now that the machine is up and running, it is up to Raij to demonstrate how the theory works in practice.
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