Novel Retention and Drainage Aid Outperforms APAM in Trials on Kraft Linerboard Machines

GoalImprove packaging mill operation with novel retention and drainage program.

<h6>Customer Challenge</h6> <p>A customer&rsquo;s corporate technology group was skeptical that PerForm PK2320 retention and drainage aid was advantaged in higher lignin systems such as Kraft linerboard. They believed that a conventional APAM product would perform better. A challenge was issued to prove which technology performs best in Kraft linerboard systems.</p> <h6>Recommended Solution</h6> <p>Solenis recommended head-to-head trials of PK2320 versus APAM on the customer&rsquo;s two world-class Kraft linerboard machines. PM1 makes heavier basis weight grades and is mostly virgin, with only about 5% recycled fiber. PM2 makes lighter grades and uses about 20% recycled fiber.</p> <h6>Results Achieved</h6> <p>In previous trials, PK2320 delivered major fiber savings and productivity improvements over an untreated system. The baseline for the APAM trials was hence the PK2320 treated system. APAM proved to be good at fines retention, especially on the lighter weight grades, competing well with PK2320 on that metric. However, APAM did not provide as good of drainage, which was a big drawback on the heavier weight grades. Furthermore, APAM was very sensitive to water variations and changes in the pulp mill, causing swings on the machine that resulted in significant lost production. PK2320 proved to be less sensitive and had no negative effect on production.&nbsp;</p> <p><img style="max-width: 100%; width: auto; height: auto;" src="/link/7ef866e1df054e52ad889acd94752166.aspx" alt="" width="1654" height="1052" /></p>