LD Celulose S.A, a joint venture between the Austrian company Lenzing and the Brazilian company Dexco, invested about USD 1.3 bn in a 500,000 tonne/year dissolving wood pulp mill in the Triângulo Mineiro region in Brazil. Valmet delivered the key process islands and integrated automation solutions for the mill. The equipment operations and the production ramp-up in the new mill have now successfully started.
Valmet delivered the project with extended scope of supply. Detailed engineering for the project was started in the beginning of 2020 and the installation works at the site in the beginning of 2021.
“Our new mill brings a positive socioeconomic impact throughout the region. The dissolving pulp is a key raw material for manufacturing Lenzing’s wood-based textile and specialty fibers. This mill is among the most productive and energy-efficient mills in the world. We have adopted the most advanced technologies in the mill, not only in the sustainable production process, but also in the solutions that seek to reduce emissions to the environment. We are very happy that despite the outside challenges we have been able to follow our schedule”, states Luís Künzel, CEO of LD Celulose.
“This project is an excellent reference of dissolving pulp technology and our green field pulp mill delivery capability. Almost everything in this project was implemented during the global Covid-19 pandemic. We have been working remotely in engineering, project management and even in factory acceptance test for the automation system. This has required a lot of trust and communications between the Valmet and LD Celulose teams and special attention to planning and scheduling. I’m pleased to see how our teams have reached this important milestone of starting the production at the site”, says Bertel Karlstedt, Business Line President, Pulp and Energy, Valmet.
“The project execution was a success even in such challenging times which demonstrates our capacity and competence to deliver the right quality at the right time. The cooperation both with Valmet Brazilian and Nordic teams and our customer has made it possible. In addition to leading process technology solutions, the project features an advanced automation system supported with analyzers, Valmet Industrial Internet solutions and a mill-wide Operator Training Simulator”, says Celso Tacla, Area President, Valmet South America.
Valmet’s complete delivery included a fiber line, a pulp drying and baling line, an evaporation plant, ash crystallization, a white liquor plant, mill-wide automation system, analyzers and training simulators for all process areas.
The fiber line features Valmet TwinRoll technology for high washing efficiency with low chemical and water consumption. The pulp drying and baling line is designed to handle the special requirements of dissolving pulp in an energy efficient way and ensures high-quality pulp and easy operation with the support of the Valmet Quality Control System.
The evaporation plant features Valmet Tubel technology for high availability and produces clean condensate quality for 100% reuse in the mill. The white liquor plant includes recausticizing and lime kiln and is designed for high reliability and less maintenance. The Valmet Ash Crystallizer has a capacity of 300 tons of ash per day and will recover mill chemicals and remove non-process elements, primarily chloride and potassium, from the mill’s liquor cycle.
The mill-wide automation system, Valmet DNA, stands out with its innovativeness being built on the latest virtualization technology, allowing a completely new way to operate the mill and integration with analyzers.
Valmet Operator Training Simulator (OTS) will be used in all process islands, from the beginning to the end of production, with a total of 14 process areas. An innovative fact of the project is that its wood handling area is the first in Brazil to use OTS technology. Another highlight is the presence of simulators for the areas of water treatment, water treatment for boilers, effluent treatment and turbines, commonly little explored in the OTS. This demontrates the commitment of LD Celulose to implement for more efficient, optimized processes focused on the safety and excellence of its operational team.