Germany – ANDRITZ has successfully started up the primary equipment for an innovative mechanical pulping line provided to Mannheim, Germany-based hygiene and health company Essity.
The new system, which has a capacity of 100 bdmt/d, processes 100% wheat straw to generate bleached straw pulp for the mill’s own tissue manufacturing. The facility mostly employs FSC- and/or PEFC-certified thinning and waste wood from the mill’s surrounding region as raw material for pulp manufacture. Since the installation of the new technology, Essity has been employing plant-based agricultural residue from local farms to produce high-quality tissue. The revolutionary procedure consumes less water and energy, making it a breakthrough in sustainable tissue manufacturing. The Mannheim factory is the first of its sort in Europe and the first on a significant scale in the globe.
ANDRITZ supplied the majority of the main equipment, ranging from cleaning, screening, dewatering, and bleach tower discharge technology through refining. The scope of delivery also included mechanical installation, commissioning, and start-up supervision.
Several trials for dewatering, refining, bleaching, and the mixing behavior of wheat straw, as well as extensive tissue production trials, were done in ANDRITZ’s fiber preparation pilot facilities and the PrimeLine TIAC – Tissue Innovation and Application Center in the run-up to the project.
