A very successful start-up of WLP for Valmet and CMPC in Chile

Valmet had a grateful start-up in White Liquor Plant in CMPC Celulosa S.A.'s Laja pulp mill in Chile. The mechanical erection was completed on February 19th and the start-up milestone was only in February 24th, with continuous white liquor and lime production. Provisional acceptance was signed on April 11th, 2018.

"It was a challenging project due its several interfaces, engineering in different BUs (Brasil, Chile, Finland, Denmark and Sweden), deliveries from several countries in Asia (China), Europe (DK, FIN, SWE, POL, etc), North America (USA) and South America (BR and CHL), erection works in Chile and multicultural erection supervision and commissioning teams (people from Brasil, Chile, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Russian, etc) and a demand customer specially in terms of quality and schedule mainly due the environmental legislation in Chile. So indeed, a Global project with some communication and cultural difficulties, which is expected in this type of project with people from several places working together. But as a Valmeteer we are prepared for this challenger and with a strong communication skills commitment from all team members and cooperation from our technology centers and customer we could overcome all these challenging and fulfil the engineering, deliveries, construction and commissioning startup milestones according to project plan." says Valmet's project manager Guilherme Mendon?a.

The key factor for the successful start-up was the excellent teamwork developed in the mill between Valmet and CMPC teams as well as the easy operation of the plant in general, specially the interface between operation and equipment. "During the start-up, Valmet and CMPC teams worked together, as an integrated team. Besides, the measured parameters from the plant were good, since the beginning, which gave us confidence to develop all the start-up process. The learning curve have been better than expected and the costumer is very satisfied with Valmet deliveries and support during the startup phase.", pointed Valmet's start-up coordinator Daniel Stoque Medeiros.

In terms of HSE the project was developed without major accidents or incidents, including the erection company and its partners. This fact reinforces Valmet's commitment to Health and Safety at work, one of the company's values.

 Technical information about the deliveries

The delivery was in EPC model and includes a white liquor plant with causticizing and lime kiln for efficient chemical recovery. The new white liquor plant has a capacity of 5,550 m3 of white liquor per day and a lime kiln capacity of 450 tons per day. Valmet's reliable Recovery Analyzer is a key element for the process control of the white liquor plant. This implementation is the first Recovery Analyzer reference for Valmet in the Andes region.

Another innovation in this delivery is the Opticlear, equipment used to process the raw green liquor from the recovery boiler. The equipment, which is the first reference in South America has showed a good performance during the startup phase, presenting a very low power consumption an average of 60mg/L of suspended solids in clean green liquor. The guarantee for this project is Max 65 mg/L.

 About the customer CMPC Celulosa S.A.

CMPC is a pulp and paper company, established in 1920, which produces solid wood products, pulp, paper, packaging products and tissue in Latin America, operating in 8 countries, selling to over 30 thousand clients in more than 45 countries. CMPC has around 16,800 employees around the world.