“We hope that this method will be recognized as the new standard method across the pulp industry,” Simic said.
The best available technology for bleaching kraft pulp uses ClO2 rather than elemental chlorine. A scrubber is used for ClO2 removal from effluent gas streams to ensure compliance with air emission regulations for chlorine compounds. However, the currently used analytical method is not suitable for detection of low concentrations of chlorine and ClO2
“The challenge was to develop a better analytical method to ensure compliance with more stringent regulatory requirements and which can be validated” said Nina Simic, Senior Scientist - Bleaching Chemicals at Nouryon. “It must be able to differentiate between chlorine dioxide and chlorine down to a level of 3 parts per million and suitable for the pulp mill environment.”
The new Nouryon method met all these customer and regulatory requirements and has been validated both in the laboratory and at customer sites. Afterwards the new method was published as peer-reviewed, open-access article in the scientific journal Nordic Pulp & Paper Research Journal, authored by Simic and colleagues Katarina Bremert-Jirholm and Magnus Gunnarsson and Kimona Häggström.
