Celbi - the company that swam against the tide

By PPI Special report

BRUSSELS, Feb. 21, 2011 (RISI) - While everyone else was slowing down, Celbi went against the tide. The pulp mill in Portugal had the courage to invest for the future during the financial crisis and emerged as a winner. During the most difficult months of the crisis Celbi rebuilt the entire mill and doubled capacity. A key part of the rebuild was the fiberline supplied by GL&V. Looking back, the timing was perfect.

When the pulp market was hit by the international financial crisis many producers were forced to halt production or even close down their businesses. More than four million tonnes of bleached pulp were taken off the market during the crisis and many planned rebuilds and new builds were delayed or cancelled.

After the rebuild, the Celbi mill now produces up to 600,000 tonnes/yr of eucalyptus pulp

Invested during crisis

In 2006 Celbi was acquired by the Portuguese group, Altri, which immediately decided to upgrade the entire plant. When the financial crisis struck, Celbi was thus in the middle of a large investment project. But instead of putting the project on ice, Altri decided to move forward and implement its plans for a complete refurbishment worth EUR 350 million. When the project was completed in June 2009, pulp prices were on the rise again.

"The financial crisis didn't affect us too badly because we had the financing settled before the crisis broke. And when we started production again the market was much brighter. A few months later prices rose yet again following the earthquake in Chile in February 2010," says F. Silva Gomes, member of the board.

F. Silva Gomes chose GL&V to supply the fiberline mainly because of GL&V’s wash presses

Doubled production

With pulp prices at record levels and paper mills screaming for pulp, Celbi now offers a pulp production capacity of around 600,000 tonnes/yr, double the 300,000 tonnes/yr available before the upgrade. Meanwhile, Celbi has also increased its production of renewable electricity.

"This project was a success. We increased efficiency and cut our production costs. Now we must carry on producing and reap the fruits of the investments we made," says Silva Gomes.

João Mota, project manager for the rebuild at Celbi

A large project for a new challenger

The rebuild was performed in two stages. The first stage was carried out in September 2008 and the second in June 2009. The entire fiberline was modified during the first stage and for this project Celbi chose GL&V, which opened a new office in Karlstad, Sweden, in January 2007. The order was signed in April 2007.

"We looked at several suppliers and had a few alternatives, but the reason we chose GL&V was mainly because of their wash presses and the confidence we had in the people at the company," says Silva Gomes.

"We established good relations with Celbi right from the start. We traveled down to see the mill, held discussions and developed a good solution," says Håkan Dahllöf, head of fiberline technology at GL&V.

Swift installation in a small space

The success of the project can be attributed to a lot of challenging, hard work. The rebuild of the fiberline and installation of the wash presses in the existing building were scheduled for completion in a single month. "We were perhaps a bit optimistic at the start, and it was more difficult than we expected. The equipment was designed to produce much more than before but installed in the same space. Doing this in just one month was a major challenge. But we managed to stick to the timetable and the budget, which is very satisfying," says João Mota, project manager for the rebuild.

"This is one of the toughest things you can do. The project includes all of the engineering disciplines you can imagine. The time was short and the space was confined. If you can manage this sort of challenge, you can do anything in this industry," says Anders Lindström, project manager at GL&V.

GL&V has supplied and installed five wash presses for Celbi including the press with the largest capacity in the world.

The COMPACT PRESS^TM was originally developed by Kvaerner Pulping and first installed in 2000. The name says it all - the press is small and compact in relation to capacity and washing performance. Its size is due to its utilizing a larger part of the drum for dewatering and pressing, compared to conventional wash presses.

"The compactness is a big advantage. In this case it meant that we could fit everything into the existing building," explains Håkan Dahllöf.

"We have installed the fiberline with the most efficient wash press in the world with the help of one of the smallest of the global suppliers. It was a major challenge in a large project. Our staff are very happy with our relations with GL&V. This project was quite complicated, but we knew that from the start. Thanks to GL&V we managed to overcome some great difficulties," says Silva Gomes.

Wellknown for quality

Celbi is situated near the city of Figueira da Foz on the coast of central Portugal. The city is well known for its beautiful beaches, but it's also an industrial center. The port in Figueira da Foz is just 18 km from Celbi, so the conditions for exporting are good. Celbi is known worldwide as a supplier of bleached sulfate pulp made from eucalyptus globulus. The fibers from that tree give the pulp its special qualities. The pulp is known for its low level of impurities, brightness and for special physical and chemical properties. These properties make the pulp suitable for production of fine printing paper, laminate paper and paper with special features, such as photographic paper.

"We have a strong position on the market and we are considered to be among the best in the world. Our pulp is well known for maintaining a very consistent and stable quality. It is also therefore a product that stands up well against the competition, even in tough times," says Silva Gomes.

As a part of the fiberline upgrade Celbi also invested in a conversion of the oxygen delignification system. For this they chose GL&V's DUALOX^TM. This technology involves adding oxygen in two stages with high pressure in the second reactor. This results in enhanced reactivity and thus better quality pulp.

Bleaching is performed at Celbi in four stages. After the upgrade the bleach plant starts with a hot chlorine dioxide stage that lasts two hours. This method is called DUALD^TM. GL&V also installed a completely new peroxide stage to enable Celbi to bleach to exceptionally high brightness.

During the guarantee test run the tests produced very good results. For example, the emissions volumes from the bleach plant are now among the lowest in the world, just 13 kg COD/air dried tonne prior to external treatment.

"This is fantastic and it's lower than most mills can boast," says Håkan Dahllöf.

"We are very pleased with GL&V's equipment and we are convinced that it will work very well. We are also very pleased with the quality of the pulp. Even though we increased production speed we have the same high quality as before. We're very pleased of this and GL&V should be pleased too," says Silva Gomes.

Time to start producing

Although Celbi completed the major rebuild only recently, it is already planning the next step forward. "We are still in the learning phase. Firstly we must stabilize production at 600,000 tonnes/yr. But we are already looking to increase production even more in future. It's important to remain competitive on the market."

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