The mission of FiberLaboratory is to establish innovative cooperation with the pulp and paper industries, machine and chemical suppliers and other universities.
Focal areas of our research are:
1. New mixing technologies for the chemical pulp & paper industy
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Speedup of mixing processes
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Hydrodynamic phenomena (dispersion, flows, shear forces….)
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Process-, surface- and colloid chemistry and reactions
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Chemical mixing
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New methods for mixing measurement
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LC- and MC-, fluid-fluid,gas-fluid…
2. Fiber-additive concepts
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Increase of the filler content of paper
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New methods for the processing of filler
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Optimizing the usage of a single additive
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Managing the effects of chemical and physical fiber modifications in pilot- and industrial scale
3. Separation processes relating to fiber suspension
The two key research topics are:
- Feed and mixing of paper chemicals
- New techniques for intensifying short circulation
Techniques for feeding and mixing chemicals have improved considerably in recent years. Such developments have brought new challenges and opportunities for optimising the feed of paper chemicals. Chemical feed has been broadly investigated, for example by computations on the dispersion of the chemical in the process tube.
As the current trend seems to be for machines continually to increase in size, there is a need to simplify the short circulation of paper and board machines.
The ideal would be to increase the hardware capacity without increasing the size of the machines. Delays and capacities have become a considerable drawback in short circulation techniques. This has instigated, for example, an increase in the amount of waste paper as the paper grade is changed. At present, machine suppliers have manufactured simplified and compact processes for pulp and water circulation. The aim has been to reduce capacities, minimise the number of circulations and utilise new measurement and control systems. A reduction in capacities leads to an increase in pulp consistency and in the demand for raw material of better and more even quality. Therefore, more efficient sorting and fractionating techniques are required.