Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus. It is a common misconception that paper mills are sources of odors. Pulp mills, not paper mills can be a source of malodorous air emissions.

History

In 105 AD, the first papermaking process was innovated in China, by the Han Dynasty Chinese court eunuch Tsai Lun in the early 2nd century AD. The technology spread from East Asia to the Islamic world after the Battle of Talas.

The earliest known paper mill is known to have operated in Baghdad, modern-day Iraq, as early as 794. After Baghdad, the paper-making process spread to Damascus, Egypt, and Morocco, and by the 10th century, it had replaced papyrus, wood, silk and parchment as the cheapest and most widespread writing medium in the Islamic world. [citation|first=Farid|last=Mahdavi|title=Review: "Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World" by Jonathan M. Bloom|journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History|publisher=MIT Press|volume=34|issue=1|year=2003|pages=129-30]

In Europe, the first mention of rag-paper is in the tract of Peter, abbot of Cluny (1112 - 1150 AD), while the oldest recorded document on paper in Christian Europe is the 11th century Missal of Silos, whose paper was probably made in Islamic Spain. [ Islam and the Occident, A. Gonzalez Palencia, "Hispania", Vol. 18, No. 3 (Oct., 1935), pp. 245-276 JSTOR [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2133(193510)18%3A3%3C245%3AIATO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F] ] One of the first known paper mills in Europe was in Xativa (now Jativa) near Valencia, Spain, established around 1151 AD by the Muslim Moors. [ [http://users.stlcc.edu/nfuller/paper/ stlcc.ecu/nfuller/paper] ]

Characteristics

Paper mills can be fully-integrated mills or non-integrated mills. Integrated mills consist of a pulp mill and a paper mill on the same site. Such mills receive logs or wood chips and produce paper. It is the pulping section of the mill, particularly if it uses the kraft process, which is responsible for the odor commonly associated with these mills. Non-integrated mills purchase wood pulp, usually as dried baled, known as market pulp and produce little, if any, odor.

The modern paper mill uses large amounts of energy, water, and wood pulp in a highly efficient and extremely complex series of processes, using modern and sophisticated controls technology to produce a sheet of paper that can be used in incredibly diverse ways. Modern paper machines are very large and can be 500 feet (~150 m) in length, produce a sheet 400 inches (~10 m) wide, and operate at speeds of over 60 mph (100 km/h). [cite web|url=http://www.metsoautomation.com/News/newsdocuments.nsf/Web2NewsDoc/CAC7C79ED6B6E117C22572A00048448C?OpenDocument&ch=ChMetsoPaperWebEng&id=CAC7C79ED6B6E117C22572A00048448C&|title=Metso supplied SC paper machine line sets a new world speed record at Stora Enso Kvarnsveden|accessdate=2008-04-12] The two main suppliers of paper machines are Metso and Voith.

Mills

* Braviken Paper Mill, Norrköping, Sweden
* Crane Paper Company, Dalton, Massachusetts (A large supplier of paper for the U.S. dollar)
*Curtis Paper Mill, Newark, Delaware (closed paper mill also known as the Nonantum Mill)
* Sartell Paper Mill, Sartell, Minnesota
* Södra Cell Folla, Norway
* UPM Kymmene, Finland
* Portucel Soporcel, Portugal

See also

*Paper pollution
*Cutting Stock Problem

Notes

External links

* [http://www.paperweb.biz/ Paperweb.biz - Paper world directory and search engine for the pulp and paper world]