In December, Bowater Inc. completed construction on a new ink-removal facility at its Coosa Pines mill. The facility converted the mill into an operation that now exclusively produces recycled newsprint.On Thursday, Walter Brunson, Bowater vice president and resident manager of the mill, gave The Daily Home a tour of the new facility, as well as other parts of the mill, and discussed how paper is recycled.
Brunson also talked about why Bowater constructed the facility, which cost more than $100 million, and what future plans it has for the mill.
Brunson said recycling is a more energy-efficient method of producing paper than the method the mill previously used to create newsprint. The mill used to grind wood and turn that into pulp, which is the basis of paper.
Before switching to recycling, the mill required between 90 and 110 megawatts of electricity to run. With recycling, the mill requires about half of the electricity, between 50 and 60 megawatts, according to figures provided by Bowater.
The company pays about $32 per megawatt hour for electricity from Alabama Power, which is more than the $26 per megawatt hour industry average, the figures state.
Brunson said recycling winds up costing Bowater about $40 per ton less than previous methods of producing newsprint at the mill.
It was previously reported that the mill’s average production of newsprint is about 1,000 tons a day.
He said that using new equipment to turn wood into pulp is generally cheaper than recycling, but the equipment the mill used before getting the new facility was so outdated that it cost more than recycling.
Brunson said reducing costs at the mill is one way to increase its competitiveness, which needs to be done if the mill is going to remain open.
He said the mill is Bowater’s most expensive newsprint operation and one of the most costly of 41 mills in North America that participated in a recent industry study.
He said he believes the mill has the assets and people to become less costly than most of the mills in the study.
John Donahue, a manager at the mill, said that if a company can produce a commodity like newsprint for less money, it can charge less, which means more people will buy it, and sales will increase.
Donahue said this is especially important during slow times, which the industry is experiencing now due to an overall decrease in demand for newsprint.
Brunson said increasing the returns on the money Bowater invested in the Coosa Pines mill will satisfy the company’s shareholders and encourage future investment at the mill for new technologies.
Bowater also converted the Coosa Pines mill to a recycling facility to protect the environment, according to Brunson.
Not only does recycling reduce the number of trees that have to be cut for paper production, it also means less used paper has to go into landfills.
He said the company takes in about 1,150 tons of used material a day on average. About 15 percent of this is lost in the recycling process or is material other than paper that accidentally makes it into the newspaper bales.
Both trains and trucks take the bales to the mill’s storage warehouse, which is one of the two buildings in the new recycling facility.
The warehouse is about 75,000 square feet, according to Dave Kirby, production coordinator at the mill.
Brunson said the mill also uses old magazines in the recycling process. The used paper goes into two rotary repulpers, which sit outside the warehouse.
Brunson said the paper is mixed with water and chemicals to make a slurry. From there the slurry goes into the second building, which is where the ink is removed from the paper fibers.
The pulp is spun around in a number of different centrifuges where staples and leftover wire are removed, Kirby said.
The pulp then goes into floatation cells, where air and soap-like chemicals are injected into the pulp. The chemicals cause the ink and other pollutants to loosen from the pulp and stick to air bubbles that are created during the floatation process, according to Bowater documents.
The pulp goes through more centrifuges, then leaves the ink-removal facility and goes onto the paper machines in the mill’s front building.
Brunson said the mill currently runs two machines. The company previously had three running but shut one down.
The machines press the pulp between two sheets of fabric that are over 27 feet wide. The pulp is then passed through a series of rollers that remove water. What comes out the other end is paper, according to Robert Harvey, a machine tender at the mill.
Brunson said Bowater will make more efforts in the future to improve the mill’s competitiveness, in addition to cutting costs.
These efforts include improving product quality and increasing productivity and satisfaction of both employees and customers.
