Continuous Digester

ABHISEK DASH

Introduction
It is a tube shaped reactor in which the chips move through continuously. Various zones in the reactor like charging, impregnation, heating , cooking, etc.

Typical reactor: Kamyr digester

Why continuous digesters?

About 40% less energy consumption than batch digester Somewhat higher pulp strength Less complicated process for removal of non-condensable gasesrequired for environmental control Higher black liquor solids and consequent lower evaporation cost in the chemical recovery cycle More uniform steam demand

The most used continuous digester is the Kamyr digester. It is a tube which is 60-70 meters high made of carbon steel. The typical capacity of this sized digester is 1000 oven dry tons of pulp per day. Besides the actual digester, there is a large amount of periphery equipment needed to support the digester.

CONTINUOUS DIGESTER
Chips Chips Silo Steam S c reens Liquor Cooking Zone Chips and Liquor Steam Impregnation Zone

White Liquor

High Pressure Feeder

Liquor
Washing Zone Blow Line

Chip and Liquor Charging

It is very important that the chips are added to continuous digesters in a consistent and accurate fashion. A chip meter is used to accomplish this.
This is a rotating wheel which meters chips.

A presteaming vessel is used to heat the chips and remove air and volatiles.
The chips are steamed for 2-3 minutes at 103-124 kPa.

Chip bin

Bin activator

Chip metre
*Controls the production rate

Low pressure feeders

low pressure feeders are the link between chips and pulp in processing.
Functions To reduce steam leakage and deliver chips to streaming vessel

Steaming vessel

Chip chute
Connected to the top of high pressure feeder

Tramp material separator

Tramp material separator protects downstream refiners, cleaners, and other equipment from damage caused by baling wire, metals, tiles and other contaminants for recycled and virgin pulp applications.

Rejected Baling Wire

High pressure feeder

It has a tapered rotor with 4 helical pockets to go from one side of rotor to another, making an angle of 45 to each other

From HPF chips come to the top separator at the top of digester

Top separator
It has a cylindrical screen surrounding a screw conveyor. The vertically slotted screen allows most transfer liquor to return to the top circulation pump. The screw conveyor moves the chips down into the digester and simultaneously wipes the cylindrical basket screen clear of all chips and fines.

For steam liquor phase vessels

Impregnation zone
Liquor penetrates into the capillary structure of the chips Low temp chemical reaction between the cooking liquor and components of the solid wood phase begin Cooking chemicals diffuse from exterior chip surface towards the chip centre 45-50 minutes of chip retention at 115-130 c

Primary heating zone

After chips have passed through impregnation zone ,the solid/liquid reaction mixture must be brought to full cooking temperature This unit operation is primary heating

Primary heating zone

=
(+) [

. ]X :

()

B:flow rate of bound liquor in the heating zone F:total flow rate of liquor in the heating zone C:flow rate of liquor through external circulation

Two vessel hydraulic digester system

Has two individual reactors One for impregnation followed by a larger digester vessel Advantages More space for cooking Energy efficent

Primary heating zone for a two vessel hydraulic digester

Extraction zone
The extraction zone purges black liquor from reaction mixture Extracted liquor goes to the flash tank

Flash tank
Liquor is cooled by flashing and the flash stream is reclaimed for pre heating

Counter current high heat washing

It refers to the countercurrent washing of fully cooked chips or almost fully cooked chips within the bottom section of the digester vessel From there, a component of the wash liquor moves vertically up while the remainder chips being discharged through the bottom digester.

Chips (26.5 l/s) Liquor (40 l/s)

Chips (26.5 l/s) Liquor (40 l/s)

% Lignin
Upper Cook Discharge (85 l/s) Lower Cook Discharge (120 l/s)
Lign 27.2 25.5 23.8 22.1 20.4 18.7 16.9 15.2 13.5 Quench 11.8 Discharge 10.1 (4 l/s) 8.4 6.6 4.9 3.2

Upper Cook Screens (85 l/s)

% Carbo
Upper Cook Discharge (85 l/s) Lower Cook Discharge (120 l/s)

Upper Cook Screens (85 l/s)

Lower Cook Screens (120 l/s)

Extraction Screens (42 l/s)

Carb 65.2 63.6 61.9 60.3 58.7 57.1 55.4 53.8 52.2 50.6 49.0 47.3 45.7 44.1 42.5

Lower Cook Screens (120 l/s)

Quench Discharge (4 l/s)

Extraction Screens (42 l/s)

Wash Discharge (25 l/s)

Cold Blow Nozzles (15 l/s)

Wash Discharge (25 l/s)

Cold Blow Nozzles (15 l/s)

Blowline

Blowline