Authors*: Melissa Tatiana Andreuccetti1
Brenno Santos Leite2
José Vicente Hallak d´Angelo1
ABSTRACT
One of the greatest challenges in the recovery unit of the pulp
and paper mills is to avoid sodium salt scaling in evaporators
during black liquor concentration process. This scale formation
on the heat transfer surfaces of evaporators and concentrators,
due to precipitation of sodium salts, reduces the overall
efficiency of this equipment. A direct determination of sodium
sulfate and sodium carbonate concentration in black liquor
samples requires instrumental or analytical techniques that may
be too expensive, too long or both. This work aims at a physical
characterization of black liquor samples from the evaporation
unit process streams, trying to establish a relation between
some physical properties (density, viscosity and total solids
content, which are easier to measure) and the concentration
of sodium sulfate. Experimental data of this work have shown
good reproducibility, and may be used to obtain a correlation
between the physical properties measured and sodium sulfate
content, allowing future studies that may lead to a better
understanding of scaling formation process.
*Authors’ references:
1. Department of Chemical Engineering Systems, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Campinas. Avenida Albert Einstein, 500, Bloco A. – Cidade Universitária
Zeferino Vaz, Barão Geraldo, CEP 13083-852, Campinas, SP, Brazil
E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
2. Federal University of Viçosa, Campus Florestal, CEP: 35690-000, Florestal, MG, Brazil
Corresponding author: Brenno Santos Leite – E-mail: [email protected]
O PAPEL vol. 72, num. 12, pp. 52 – 57 DEC 2011
